Nelson holds out, KBH folds on health care

As Nebraska Sen. Bill Nelson holds out, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison folds.

Erick Erickson at RedState.com has shed some light on the latest setback on healthcare.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead.

Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.

Harry Reid decided to rush the Defense Appropriations bill to the floor of the Senate. He had an agreement from the Republicans to get it there quickly so it could be dispensed with and the health care debate could be accelerated.

After the Senate Democrats broke 200+ years of Senate rules interpretations last week to cut short the reading of Senator Sander’s amendment, the Senate Republicans backed out of their deal with the Democrats. The Senate GOP unanimously agreed to filibuster the Defense Appropriations bill thereby forcing the health care legislation to wait.

Even Olympia Snowe agreed.

But the Defense legislation had 1,719 earmark projects worth $7.6 billion in it, a good bit of it going to Texas.

So Kay Bailey Hutchison broke her word to the Senate GOP and voted with the Democrats, thereby ending any hope of obstructing Harry Reid’s intended vote on health care. Once Kay Bailey Hutchison jumped ship, Snowe and Collins followed.

Now we creep closer to a health care vote that may or may not accelerate socialism.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/12/18/for-kay-bailey-hutchison-staying-in-washington-to-fight-health-care-means-expediting-its-passage/