Healthy and happy in Nebraska.

Nebraska is the state with the highest percentage of its’ population insured. And so, we will now be required to pay for everyone there after Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) sold his vote on health care reform to secure full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to everyone below the poverty level. He was also able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts for folks in Nebraska.

Yay.

So, as long as you’re a fat cat holdout, and you’re in the way of something the reigning king wants, you get your bag of coins. That’s how this works. Of course, if you don’t live in Nebraska, you get squat, but that’s not the game.

You just have to maneuver yourself into the 60^th vote position, then balk. That gets the serious courting underway. Of course, to save face, Nelson has abortion to fall back on – because he really did this for the unborn – not for insurance money. Nelson allegedly held out because the bill had language, which allowed for blanket abortion funding by the U.S. government. After a few hours with Harry Reid, however, he feels much better now.

I am an old reporter – and so, am not new to the glad-handing, back-slapping antics of government elitists, albeit not at the level these guys are operating. And as a reporter, I can see the possible necessity of some kind of health reform. I just don’t think this package is it. But how can anyone be sure? Look at the size of the thing. Look at the continued claims that it is not being read – hell, that it’s unreadable. What fancy Easter Eggs are hidden away in its twisting language?

Nelson’s claims that he would withdraw support for the bill if meetings changed any of the provisions he and Reid worked out seem ridiculous on their face. How would he even know? The President is now beating his chest, claiming the Senate’s bill is really a “bill of rights” where there are “on any page, patient protections that dwarf any passed by Congress in at least a decade.”

All I can say about this is that in my meager experience, any time a politician uses the term “dwarf” – it’s time to check your bank account.

Unless you live in Nebraska.