I'm getting very tired of Ben Nelson

Ben Nelson on aid to states, loans to small business, and other stimulus measures:

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the original bill to reauthorize long-term unemployment benefits, a broad domestic aid package that also included business tax breaks and state Medicaid money, would have added $134 billion to the deficit over 10 years. When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) first brought it to the floor in June, it failed with a whopping dozen Democrats voting nay. Over the next several weeks, Reid and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) reduced the bill's deficit impact by adding revenue raisers and doing things like cutting $25 per week from every unemployment check. They got closer and closer in a series of votes, but Nelson joined moderate Republicans in saying the bill was moving in the "right direction" while still voting no.

Ben Nelson on extending unemployment benefits:

In this week's votes, Nelson insisted that Democrats find a way to pay for the extension of benefits. He said there are some stimulus funds that could be used -- an idea that Republicans back..."The question is the level of emergency versus the initial point: I'm not trying to say it's [unemployment] not important. Obviously it's very important. If it's that important, it's important enough to be paid for."

Ben Nelson on extending the Bush tax cuts for top income earners:

Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts. Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said in an interview Wednesday that Congress shouldn't allow taxes on the wealthy to rise until the economy is on a sounder footing. Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) said through a spokesman that he also supported extending all the expiring tax cuts for now, adding that he wanted to offset the impact on federal deficits as much as possible.

Offset the impact on the deficit how? By cutting spending on things like aid to states and the unemployed? Has anyone suggested the opposite approach to Senator Nelson, paying for aid to states and the unemployed by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire? More generally, I think that every time Senator Nelson says we can't undertake some stimulus measure unless it is paid for somewhere else in the deficit, the response should be to offer massive cuts in agriculture subsidies, directed specifically at Nebraska farmers if possible.