Neb. Senate race shifts to focus on health care

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the vast majority of the federal health care overhaul law has prompted a shift in the U.S. Senate race that, until now, has mostly seen Deb Fischer and Bob Kerrey sniping over Kerrey’s 10-year residency in New York and Fischer’s cut-rate grazing fees on federal land.

“This is an important issue, and it has sharpened the focus of this race,” Fischer, a Republican, said the day after the landmark decision. “I’ve never shied away from saying I want to repeal Obamacare, and he’s never shied away from supporting it.”

Nowhere does the federal health care law stir more controversy than in Nebraska, where outgoing Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson provided the final vote needed in 2009 to advance it to the full Senate, where it eventually passed. Republicans accused Nelson of trading his vote for a deal that would have given Nebraska federal funding for Medicaid expansion, an agreement opponents dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback.” The proposal was removed before the bill’s final passage.

Kerrey, a Democrat, supports the overhaul but wants to make changes to it _ and he said he’s willing to work with Republicans on that, as well as solving the nation’s budget crisis.

“We’re going to have to find common cause between Republicans and Democrats in order to solve the problem, because otherwise all we’ve solved is maybe the problem of getting elected,” Kerrey said. “But we haven’t really addressed the challenges of having a budget that contains way less revenue than expenditures on the table.”

Kerrey said he’s particularly interested in a proposal by Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee that would see the federal government and state “swap” responsibilities for Medicaid and public schools. Under the plan, the federal government would take full responsibility for Medicaid, a federal-state program for poor and disabled people, while states would take full responsibility for public schools.

Kerrey also sees an urgent need for Nebraska to set up a health insurance exchange as required

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.theindependent.com/news/state/senate-race-shifts-from-residence-to-health-care/article_14f0c517-792a-5d76-bdd0-3d78c9c9e291.html