In what is quickly turning into a dismal cluster-fuck for Democrats everywhere, the Healthcare plan that was so close to being finalized has been blocked by Democrat Ben Nelson, who wants stricter abortion laws in the bill before supporting it.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

“Without modifications, the language concerning abortion is not sufficient,” Nelson declared in a written statement that summarized the results of days of private negotiations. The second-term Nebraskan opposes the procedure and wants tighter restrictions written into the overhaul.

With Nelson’s support, the White House and Senate Democrats would command 60 votes for the health care measure, enough to overcome a Republican filibuster and pass the bill within a matter of days.

“The absolute refusal of Republicans in the Senate to support health care reform and the hijacking of the bill by defenders of the insurance industry have brought us a Senate bill that is inadequate,” Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement.

His criticism of GOP lawmakers aside, Trumka’s blast seemed aimed at Nelson, Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and possibly other members of the Senate Democratic caucus who have successfully stripped the legislation of any form of government-run insurance option.

Bullshit.  Democrats should have and probably did expect unanimous opposition from Republicans regarding this bill.  They had 60 Democrats as it stood, so numbers were in their favor.  They had the unprecedented popularity of their Democratic president.  And they had a plan that made common-sense to over 50% of the American public during numerous polls.  Their inability to push through a government-run option, or any option currently, is a failure they can purely call their own.  They were inconsistent with their message, while Republicans were more staunch in their communal stance.  When Obama said that a government-run option doesn’t translate to a single-payer system in the longterm, we as a public believed it.  Until Barney Frank said the exact opposite.  Bernie Sanders later joined in.  Then people started scratching their heads.   Similar inconsistencies occurred regarding the cost of the plan, with Blue Dog Democrats saying it was too expensive while others said it would pay for itself in the long run.  As a result, the message from Democrats was never clear or consistent enough to resonate with the public to a degree they would demand change on their behalf.  And thus, despite greater than 50% approval ratings, Republicans could pull the right strings (most notably Joe Lieberman) and get enough support to stanch the bill to date.

The worst part is the way the plan had originally been set up, the muscle that would enforce the private reforms came largely from the public, government-run option.  Take generic drugs for example.  Obama-Biden wanted generics to be used more often, and the government – run plans could have introduced them at a cheaper cost, thus forcing private firms to do the same.  But now, how do they enforce the use of generics short of hardcore regulation that would draw the ire of moderates everywhere?

Democrats can blame Republicans on this if they want to, but ultimately they had an idea their party, their voters and even the swing-voters were getting behind.  They just fucked up selling it.  If you’re a salesman and you lose a bid, you don’t blame the competitor.  You fucked up, period.