Disowning The Nelson Deal

Democrats have taken a lot of heat for the process of health care reform, and, along with closed-door negotiations, the deal to secure Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) vote has been a favored point of criticism. The White House has started to own up, without naming names, to the bad optics of the Nelson agreement--which granted federal funding for the Medicaid in Nebraska and let Nelson insert language on abortion--as President Obama said in his State of the Union address that health care became associated with "horse trading."


Now, TPMDC's Christina Bellantoni reports that Democratic sources are saying that the Nelson deal, specifically, harmed health care reform, criticizing the deal they previously had to live with--disowning what perhaps became the messiest part of the whole messy process that is now being criticized by the White House, even, for said messiness.