Senate votes down anti abortion language

The Senate vote to kill the amendment offered by Senator Nelson of Nebraska which would continue the ban of federal funding for abortions may be the last straw in the debate of the healthcare bill. Nelson has said he will not support hte bill without the antiabortion language. Of course, he is hedging a bit now that he has lost. Still, if he is true to his word and opposes the bill, nothing can pass without one of the Maine Republican senators. That means there cannot be a public option in the bill. It also means that the supposed compromise to pass the bill with no public option but with a big increase in the coverage of medicare and medicaid also will not pass. there may be some increase in medicare coverage, maybe to age 60, but that is about it. I guess that the goal is to see how fast medicare can be bankrupted. After all, the Democrats bill would take half a trillion dollars out of medicare but then would increase those covered by the plan by about 65%. sounds like a total failure to me.