White House Threatens to Close Offutt Air Force Base If Nelson Doesn’t Vote for Obamacare
by stoptheaclu on Free Republic: Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if [Ben] Nelson _D-NE] doesn't fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration playing politics with our national security.
So much for the idea of Obama trying to save jobs and improve the economy!
Without Nelson's vote, since all Republicans are still in line to oppose this, Reid is still left with 59 votes. So, some arm twisting is taking place. Nelson doesn't want this bill to fund abortions so he is now being threatened, and national security along with him. How shameful this would be if Democrats felt shame.
Ed Morrissey: "The Obama administration has little left to use for leverage. Why not national security? After all, if we're going to bring terrorists into Illinois, what does it matter if we put the US Strategic Command on wheels for a few years?"
What a nightmare!
Dakota Voice reports: In the wake of the firestorm created by this allegation, 20 senators including Senator John Thune (R-SD) are calling for a probe into the allegations.
From the Omaha World Herald: Nebraska’s Sen. Mike Johanns and 19 other Republican senators Wednesday called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate. See also: 20 senators demand probe
Tags: Ben Nelson, Chicago politics, government healthcare, Nebraska, Obama administration, Offutt AFB, Rahm Emanuel To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 7:51 PM - Post Link
5 Comments:
So, they said, "That's a nice base you have up there. Be a shame is something would happen to it..."
I damned near choked when this story first broke. UNREAL, Dr. Bill can you imagine??
this is not surprising -- to better understand what is going on in the Obama White House:
Obama's
Rules for Revolution
Wow, a Chicago trained & honed politician threatening another Democrat w/ taking away a project if they don't vote the RIGHT way.
Who's heard of such a thing?
That NEVER happens in the Chicago City Council, Cook County Board of Commissioners or Springfield.
Mayor Daley and Gov., sorry, ex-Gov. Blagojevich would be shocked, shocked I tell you.
This indicates how desparate they are.. who would think..
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