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By DON WALTON
From: Lincoln Journal Star
Partisan politics, grandstanding and obstruction are making it difficult to reach an agreement to raise the national debt ceiling and begin to reduce federal spending, Sen. Ben Nelson said Wednesday.
"Partisan games continue to paralyze Washington," the Democratic senator said during a telephone conference call.
Asked if he believes tea party politics is driving the Republican position, Nelson said: "Yes."
"The so-called 'cut, cap and balance' plan is pretty close to being what you would label the tea party," he said.
That proposal, which included a statutory cap on spending and a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget every year, was approved by the Republican-controlled House, but rejected by the Democratic Senate.
Nelson said he believes a debt-reduction package needs to be composed of spending cuts without tax increases. But, he said, "some would like to balance the budget on the backs of seniors."
The Republican plan championed by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin would "privatize Medicare," Nelson said.
"There is no private insurance for sick old people," he said, and that's why Medicare was adopted in the 1960s. Some partisan proposals are so "far to the right (that) they would shock the economy," he added.
"Something needs to be done," he said, "but it needs to be done in the right way."
"The politics of this seems to be about the 2012 election," Nelson said. "You can adversely affect the economy (and) the future of the country if you obstruct."
Nelson said he has received an increasing volume of phone calls and e-mails urging Congress to raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid a national default.
"Most everybody is telling us to get a deal," he said.
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