By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent – 1 hr 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Republicans accused Democrats of bad manners, bad timing and bad health care policy on Friday, then summoned images of fire and ice for good measure as they campaigned to block passage of sweeping legislation President Barack Obama's allies want passed by Christmas.

Unperturbed, the White House and Democrats bargained behind closed doors for hours with Sen. Ben Nelson in a search for the 60th vote needed to pass the measure. "Hopefully, we're making progress," the Nebraska Democrat said during a break in the talks.

Several officials said Nelson was seeking to ease the impact of a proposed insurance industry tax on nonprofit companies, as well as win more federal funds to cover Nebraska's cost of treating patients in Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the administration and Democratic leaders had offered concessions on those points.

Nelson has spoken openly of seeking stricter abortion curbs, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of a mother is in danger. A proposed compromise on that issue has won the tentative support of Catholic hospitals. But the National Right to Life Committee objected.

Later in the day, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also rejected to the proposal. He said it "does not comply with long-standing ... restrictions on federal funding of elective abortions" that govern other government programs. The bishops played a significant role in drafting an abortion-related provision in the House bill.

If Republicans cared much about the outcome of negotiations, it wasn't apparent.

"This massive piece of legislation that seeks to restructure one-sixth of our economy is being written behind closed doors without input from anyone in an effort to jam it past not only the Senate but the American people before Christmas," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

"They are virtually thumbing their nose at the American people who are virtually screaming at us, don't pass this bill," he added.

Public opinion polls show lagging support for the measure, although Democrats argue that will change once legislation passes and consumers see benefits.

Not all liberals saw it that way.

MoveOn.org, which helped fuel Obama's election last year, announced its opposition to the measure, citing its lack of a government-run insurance option. It urged its members to sign a petition saying, "America needs real health care reform — not a massive giveaway to the insurance companies."

The bill is designed to extend coverage to millions who lack it, prohibit the industry from denying insurance on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and generally slow the rate of growth of medical spending nationwide.

At a cost of nearly $1 trillion over a decade, it includes hundreds of billions of dollars to defray the cost of coverage to individuals and families at lower and middle incomes.

Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has been preparing a final series of revisions to the 2,074-page bill, with Senate debate expected to begin on them shortly after they are made public sometime early Saturday.

Reid was involved in the negotiations with Nelson, as were White House officials, and there were also talks with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who voted for an earlier version of the legislation when it cleared the Senate Finance Committee.

Republicans, who have been accused by Rush Limbaugh and others for failing to oppose the legislation vigorously enough, have threatened to force Senate clerks to read the entire text of the proposed changes aloud, a process that could consume eight hours or so.

At his news conference, McConnell taunted Democrats in terms that recalled Obama's campaign promise of "change we can believe in."

The health care bill, he said, "isn't change you can believe in; it's change that's astonishing. We all know that promises are made in political campaigns, but this is a complete reversal — there is no change. This is business as usual."

"Tomorrow, there's going to be a snowstorm, and we'll be coming in RVs and everything will be paralyzed as our nation's capital always is when there's a snowstorm."

He added, "But the fact is that there's a firestorm out there in America. That firestorm says stop this. Stop this."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expanded the criticism. He recalled that Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., had been turned down on Thursday when he made a routine request to speak for additional seconds on the Senate floor.

"It was objected to by the newest member of the United States Senate in a most brusque way," McCain said, a reference to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. "That's how the comity in this body has deteriorated. We've got to stop. We've got to stop this kind of behavior."

Aides to Franken and several other Democrats said Reid had asked members of his rank-and-file not to grant any senator additional time in view of a decision by Republicans to delay floor proceedings.

I don't care who ya are. Only a fool signs a contract they haven't read. I can't even find a current revision online. I've been looking to see if Verichip is still a part of it.

It's no big freakin deal to wait till after the new year.

Delay, delay, delay....it is obvious that Republicans are just playing politics. If President Obama proposed anything that was good for Americans, they would oppose it...even if it didn't cost anything, they would oppose it. If he said the sky was blue, they would oppose it.

Just sick of this crap.

Republicans,,,

The bill has only had revisions added to try and compromise with them.
If they claim they haven't read it they're lying. Either that or it just shows they only have the intention to oppose it anyway. No matter what it says.
Their only tactic is delay!
Their only interest is with the Insurance companies profits.
Why would they want to ruin that by reading the damn thing.
I'll bet that while its being read they'll be asleep and not listening!

I'm unaffiliated and this BS is one reason I will not use my vote to put another Republican in office.

I'd rather vote for Pee Wee Herman!

It's about time the republicrats did something! I'll look forward to Ron Paul's turn to speak.

The Republicans didn't really do squat.

Lieberman did!

The bill will probably pass but it will be weak.
The only real winner will be the Insurance Companies. As they will be able to continue milking you, me, and every other American for their own profit.

The Insurance Companies, The Republican Party, and Lieberman will have gotten the gullable to f@ck themselves without a condom.

What's even better is they've gotten you to smile about it!

Oh Yeah, and
The Valley Girls say,
"Whatever."

Exactly! And the next time some poor son of a B tells me that he has gone bankrupt due to medical bills from a hospital the first question I am going to ask him is; Are you a Republican? If so, then you just got what you deserve you stupid sob. You had your chance to fix this system and you cut off your nose to spite your face, you idiot!

Fools!

ROFLMAO

The republicans weren't ever going to vote for the bill because the bill was written centered around the public option. The revisions was an attempt to recover some democratic votes.

Besides, Obama should have kept his campaign promise and had the bill debated on C Span.

Its to bad the republicans never threatened to read the patriot act. It seems they only "care" when something will benefit the middle and working class.

Huh, the republicans voted for the Patriot act.....guess the dems failed to get it read. That's another one of Obama's broken campaign promises.

It matters not to me if the healthcare bill is passed. I have a cadilac plan through work but I know an injustice when I see it. We have been raped and scammed by the insurance companies for many years. We pay the most and rank 37 in the world in terms of care. I suspect we have dropped even further since the last study was done prior to the Bush economic meltdown. Its no accident that Conneticut is home to most of the insurance companiesand no accident traitor Joe Lieberman is senator of conneticut(for now)

Why are most americans such rubes?

The only thing I'm smiling about is that the establishment is (for now) not able to screw me over with fascistic policies like Obmamacare. Now, let's quit wasting time on this and bring the troops home!

Bring them home to what, HB?
There are no jobs for them.
If there was no war, there would be excess troops and they'd discharge many.
What would they have to come home to? Show me where there is light for them at the end of the tunnel, please.

They would have their families to come home to, of course. Bringing them home will also curb military spending and boost the economy. After the military spending stops for a while, the private sector will have a chance to recover and employ the (former)troops.*

*See "A Foreign Policy Of Freedom" by Ron Paul

LOL

Our Military is already the smallest it has been in years.
Right now they're stretched to the limit. They even have part of the 2nd ID deployed. They haven't left Korea since the Korean War.
In other words the Korean border is now undermanned.

Bush pulled 23,000 troops from Chechnya. depleting the UN Forces there.
On top of that we have almost all our RDFs (Rapid Deployment Forces) deployed making it an impossibility for us to react sufficiently to any new threat which might flare up.

What they need are more Patriotic Americans to Volunteer or Draft!

I forgot I even made this thread. I came in here to read the article