Kerrey: Cure ‘ObamaCare’ Don’t Kill it.
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As he considers a possible run for the U.S. Senate, former Senator Bob Kerrey says he’d oppose a move to pull the plug on President Obama’s health care plan.
“I don’t think I’d vote for an outright repeal of Obamacare but I would certainly vote for significant changes,” Kerrey told KFAB radio on Monday.
Kerrey’s comment follows his interview with Nebraska Watchdog from Friday when he first said he was taking a serious look at the race. That interview prompted at least one GOP Senate hopeful, Don Stenberg, to take an early swing at a Kerrey return to Capitol Hill. 
“Bob Kerrey’s vote would keep in power Senator Harry Reid and the other liberal Democrats who have imposed ObamaCare, trillion dollar deficits, and job killing federal regulations on our nation, “said Stenberg.
Stenberg also took several swipes at the fact that Kerrey has lived in New York City for the past 11 years. Some Republicans are already claiming that Kerrey is a carpetbagger.
Kerrey told Nebraska Watchdog he’s got plenty of family and businesses in Nebraska. Today he added, “I’ve probably paid more income and property taxes than all the Republican candidates combined.”
Getting back to health care Kerrey did not detail what changes he’d consider but said the legislation needs work. “I think there’s significant flaws in the bill that I’d like to see changed, and I emphasize ‘I think’ because I don’t know all the details of it…It’s the number one budgetary problem that we have at the federal level, if you’re concerned about the debt and concerned about the budget you can’t solve it without doing health care.”
Kerrey says he will make his decision to run “quickly.”
Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org
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Posted under News, State Politics.
11:52 am on January 9th, 2012
Kerry is too old to get back in the race, he had his turn and needs to retire. Why would he come back now other than to try to safe the Democratic plan to ruin this proud nation. Go away and let some new thinking, better-in-touch with today’s world leaders have a turn.
The old guard, Democrats and Republicans, got us here…now go away why we attempt to clean up your mess!
11:54 am on January 9th, 2012
OK, I’ll bite. Exactly what businesses does Kerrey still have in Nebraska? And if, in fact, he has paid more income and property taxes IN NEBRASKA than “all the Republican candidates combined” does this not validate stature as a rich democrat liberal?
12:03 pm on January 9th, 2012
Kerry’s position on Obamacare should end his consideration for a US Senate run. Really? “I am for it but I want significant changes to Obamacare.” That kind of thinking reminds me of what former Speaker Pelosi stated prior to passing the Health Care Reform Bill, “Pass the bill, then find out what is in it.” I’ll tell you what was in it – uncertainty. The uncertainty of this bill has stalled much of the business community. In short, this uncertainty has retarded job creation.
Who’s next?
12:20 pm on January 9th, 2012
More than anything, Kerrey has been gone from Nebraska for 11 years and is seriously out of touch with the majority of the people he would represent and what concerns them.
12:38 pm on January 9th, 2012
So Kerrey is part of the 1%, and he’s bragging about it?
Hey, i have family in England. Maybe I can run for prime minister.
I don’t see how Kerrey can properly represent a state without being intimately aware of the concerns of its citizens, and lets face it, living in NY the last 11 years, he hasn’t been following local news or talking to a whole lot of NE citizens. For all practical purposes, he is a carpetbagger.
12:44 pm on January 9th, 2012
Honestly Bob, have you not been keeping up on the news in Nebraska? If we wanted a Socialist/left wing Liberal in the Senate we would have kept Nelson.
If politicians really wanted to save citizens money they would ENFORCE our federal immigration laws. Just one of the dirty little secret reasons our healthcare costs are off the charts. Just imagine what citizens are paying out in healthcare/emergency services for 20 + million illegal aliens.
I’m sure you are for amnesty too just like some of the “outstanding servants” you mentioned like Senator Brad Ashford and former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel.
Please just stay in New York City.
1:03 pm on January 9th, 2012
Joe:
Well, it looks like the Republican Party has ginned up their troops in response to your article. This is pretty good evidence that the GOP is terrified that Bob might enter the race. These are the same folks who swoon over the name Ronald Reagan who I believe had a little more age on him than Bob when the Gipper ran for President.
I’d put Kerrey up against any of the current GOP candidates in a New York minute.
Jeff…
1:52 pm on January 9th, 2012
As I mentioned last week, don’t forget the grandest carpetbagger of them all: the GOP’s own Chuck Hagel! At least Bob has family and business interests in Nebraska…
…and he’s certainly a better candidate than Don Stassen or Jon ‘Lakefront home’ Bruning….
2:57 am on January 10th, 2012
Don’t forget the other two GOP carpetbaggers in Nebraska, Sen. Mike Johanns and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. Oh, and Susan, before you start bandying about that “Socialist/left wing Liberal” paintbrush to wildly, you should note that over his career, Senator Nelson voted more conservatively than 5 Republican members of the Senate. Rabid dogmatic ignorance really doesn’t become you.
8:45 am on January 10th, 2012
I get sick of hearing the stupid phrase “Obamacare”, which is simply the same old Medicare we have had for decades. It has lasted us for a couple generations & nobody turned into a communist or flew a hammer & sickle over the USA.// It’s just part of the endless GOP propaganda war to destroy any kind of help for the middle class, while the rich republicans want to keep us in submission, so they can treat us like slaves. OBAMACARE does NOT exist, it is the same sweet old Medicare that kept your Mom & Granma alive & in good health for the last 40 or 50 years. ALL the old people PAID for it, thru “payroll taxes” over the last few decades. It is a CONTRACT that the Govt is to PAY THEM BACK for all those donations, when they are 65 yrs old. Now the GOP wants to “steal” all that money Senior citizens paid & use it for MORE WARS. Or more $million bonuses for Wall Street.// Well I will VETO THAT. And you can, too, if you VOTE DEMOCRAT in 2012.
—What has bankrupted the USA? It is obvious to anyone who has watched the news for the last 9 yrs, THE WARS. (Starting with Iraq, (2003) & on to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, North Korea, ad nauseum). Nobody will try to raise the taxes to PAY for the Wars, so it is bankrupting our internal cash flow, bleeding us dry. GET THIS: Geo “W” Bush started the Iraq War to get rid of (imaginary) Weapons of Mass Destruction. Even after we found out there WERE none, they kept making up excuses for why we had to stay in Iraq for another year or 2. Actually they were trying to steal the OIL out of Iraq, but the Iraqi people were not as dumb as Bush thought. Meanwhile huge numbers of American soldiers were being killed, maimed & crippled due to Bush’s greed. And the US economy was being destroyed by massive cost of this insane useless war. So when our boys finally got to go home, there WAS no home, & no jobs, & our nation which they fought for, had been crumbling into dust. Our democracy was being crippled by endless propaganda on GOP radio shows, & billion$ networks to “buy” the vote for the monsters of Koch Industries, & Karl Rove enterprises, & Murdoch. It is all corporate criminality (greed incarnate) power-hungry industrialists who yearn to enlarge their Empires into all foreign nations, for MORE Power. It is the EVIL in the world (the love of money above all) warned about in the Bible. It will lead to global bankruptcy, riots, revolution, massive WAR, & total destruction. The end of humanity & all life as we know it. ONLY ONE ROUTE IS LEFT to us, to survive. The one thing we cannot possibly do.
To Love One Another, Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you, Seek Peace, Blessed are the Meek, Turn the other cheek, Don’t make War anymore. Turn weapons into plows (stop war, do agriculture).
Major rule: Do GOOD to the POOR, the WEAK, the ELDERLY & orphans, Be Kind to the homeless, the elderly, the sick, the prisoner, the helpless.
Here is the Biblical “Judgment Day”: ST. MATTHEW 25: 32 – 46.
TAKE HEED Republicans: IT SAYS that a Major Part of your Judgment is IF YOU TAKE CARE of the Sick, (Medicare), or Elderly (Social Security) or the homeless, or orphans (welfare) — thus YOU will be Judged, & if you were cruel & heartless toward the afflicted, YOU WILL GO TO HELL.
11:22 am on January 10th, 2012
@WFL- Please explain Johanns & Fortenberry “carpetbagging” assuming you know what a true carpetbagger is. You last sentence about “rabid, dogmatic ignorance” … really? Oh, that’s absurd. It’s a simple jab at someone you just don’t like. There’s nothing irrational, ignorant, or extreme about it really.
“Kerrey told Nebraska Watchdog he’s got plenty of family and businesses in Nebraska. Today he added, “I’ve probably paid more income and property taxes than all the Republican candidates combined.”” I hope the investigative reporters are confirming this.