Ben Nelson, wealthy legislator to the wealthy
(Official photo)
For Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), already a multimillionaire, the decision about whether to run for Senate once more hinges, in part, on whether he'd like to spend the next several years legislating, or getting richer. Really. He said that; specifically, that "leaving a bigger estate or legacy" was at issue.
Political Correction considers some of his recent votes in the context of that concern for (his own) personal wealth:
Nelson has voted to filibuster jobs legislation because he doesn't want to raise taxes. But the legislation he has filibustered would raise taxes only on people with adjusted gross incomes in excess of $1 million — about 1,050 Nebraskans, for example. While the millionaire surcharge would affect only one-tenth of one-percent of his constituents, it could pose a very slight inconvenience to Nelson's "major opportunities to increase his wealth in the private sector." (It's worth noting that the vast majority of millionaires favor raising taxes on millionaires.)
And speaking of leaving behind large estates: Ben Nelson supports a full repeal of the estate tax, despite being so concerned about deficits that he has blocked unemployment benefits.
With this record, if he was a Republican, he'd be one of the poster children for how grossly venal and dedicated to serving only the wealthiest Republicans are. But Nelson is a Democrat, and one being supported by large piles of DSCC cash. And of course that's the case—the DSCC is by design an amoral institution interested solely in electing the largest possible number of Democrats to the Senate without distinguishing between the ones who are going to strengthen the party and the ones who are effectively Republicans—and Nelson is the best chance Democrats have to hold his Senate seat against an even worse Republican.
But the fact that there is literally no point at which the national Democratic Party says, "Hey, wait. This guy completely undermines our ability to draw distinctions between our party and the Republican party on bread-and-butter economic issues. Also, he's kind of evil. Maybe we shouldn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting him"—that fact is another to be added to the long, long list of signs our political system is broken. Not just one party or one party plus one or two senators from the other party, but the system.
Also broken: Ben Nelson's soul.