Man, the lefties must really be hating Liebeman nowadays:
“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”…
Lieberman did say he’s “strongly inclined” to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he’ll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn’t changed first…
“I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,” Lieberman added. “It’s just asking for trouble – in the end, the taxpayers are going to pay and probably all people will have health insurance are going to see their premiums go up because there’s going to be cost shifting as there has been for Medicare and Medicaid.”
Since that statement came out earlier today the Reid camp…or cheerleaders….have tried to spin it so it doesn’t sound as bad as it really is. I mean how can it be bad if Joe will vote to open floor debate on Reid’s bill? Of course they are leaving out the other vote…the one that closes debate and moves the bill to a vote. Joe says he will NOT vote for that if the public option is there.
Good for him.
RINO Snowe says she won’t vote for the public option either….at least today she is saying it:
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe says she would vote with fellow Republicans to block the Democratic health care overhaul if changes are not made to the version Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined this week.
Karl at Hot Air thinks all this is leading to is Reid being able to say “I tried…but the evil empire struck me down” to his leftist loons.
Reid apparently does not have 60 votes lined up for the public option, though Reid thinks he will have them after the CBO scores it. This move was supposedly forced by the hardcore liberals in the Senate, though this could still be the kabuki by which Reid sheds responsibility for a later failure to include the public option. Either way, the ball is now in the moderates’ court.
But there is more trouble looming for Reid:
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said Tuesday she still can’t support a government-funded insurance option, a day after legislation was unveiled that would give states the choice of whether to participate in the program.
“Creating another government-funded option is not where we’re going. We don’t need to go there,” Lincoln told members of the Arkansas Farm Bureau during a video conference. “A government-funded option is something that I think is not the way to go.”
And Robert Laszewski at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review doesn’t see 60 votes coming anytime soon and does a good job of describing why:
Reid is reportedly going to include a robust Medicare-like public option with a state opt-out. That means there would be a federal Medicare-like public plan but that a state could opt out. Opting out would mean that both houses of a state’s legislature and its governor would have to agree to opt out. That’s a pretty high hurdle and it is not going to appease the moderate Democrats in the Senate, or any Republicans including Snowe, who oppose a robust public option.
We could have a public option only if a “trigger” occurs. That is Senator Snowe’s general idea. OK, define that trigger. Do you think for one moment a liberal’s definition of a trigger will come close to a moderate’s definition of a trigger? It is the last week in October and we’ve been hearing about a trigger for months. Have you seen a definition of it yet?
Then there is the possible course in the House—a public option that has to negotiate with providers just like a private health plan does—“arms’ length negotiations.” For liberals, how is that different than a co-op and its inability to gain any real kind of traction? For moderate Democrats, it will likely be seen as the “wolf in sheep’s clothes.” Maybe a place to compromise but hardly the robust government plan its proponents are looking for and there is no evidence that this idea will attract those moderate Senate Democrats that don’t like the public option.
Then there is the state opt-in. The idea is that both the state’s legislative branches and the governor would have to agree to opt-in. This could well win moderate Democratic support because very few states would do it and it is attractive to states’ rights moderates who would like to see state experimentation. This is a possible place for compromise but hardly a robust public option.
As I have said many times before, there will not be a robust Medicare-like public option or any form of a thinly veiled Medicare-like public option.
And the GOP has found some a backbone:
But before that issue can be joined on the Senate floor, Reid’s first challenge is to gain 60 votes — the number needed to overcome a filibuster by Republicans — just to bring the bill up, a parliamentary maneuver so routine that a vote is rarely required.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced that in this case, members of his party will treat it as though it were “a vote on the merits” of a bill he said would “cut Medicare, raise taxes and increase health insurance premiums.” He suggested Democrats could expect campaign commercials next year on the basis of the vote, and recalled that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was ridiculed in his 2004 presidential campaign for having once said he voted for a bill before he voted against it.
For those leftist Democrats the threat means nothing because they were elected in strong leftist strongholds….but the moderates? I think this threat will be taken seriously and some idiot trying to change the name of “public option” won’t help one iota.
All in all, its good news today.
See author page
Olympia Snowe is a liberal bitch.
I posted the below thoughts on the “public option” thread by Wordsmith…. But I want to re’post it here for add’l food for thought. But, on topic…. good news indeed. Sounds like there’s a few Dems that may need to be elected over pretend conservatives since they actually practice some fiscal conservatism. Not to mention, when one of the fold bolts, it makes a monstrous statement…. LOL
After hearing the ol’ ghost, Harry Reid, give his “public option opt out” press conference designed to save his proverbial elected hide, my first call was to a bud to ask… “just what federal funds do you think the feds are going to hold hostage for opting in?”
ala seat belt and m’cycle helmet laws tied to state road funds. Don’t have a helmet bill? You have to redirect some of your highway funds to “safety” adverts and programs, and not use them for road maintenance or building. It’s punishment, and a way for the feds to get their way using funds as the hostage. This is the precedent of Congress.
My friend’s guess for what federal funds will be held hostage? Medicaid. Mine? Medicaid was also my first thought, but then that would thwart their own mantra to “insure everyone”, wouldn’t it? At least if there was a media quick enough to pick up on it, and wasn’t on the O’prozac.
So the question would be, will the feds demand they divert some of their Medicaid funds into “education” about public option health care, instead of devoting it to actual Medicaid services as “punishment” for not opting in? Inquiring minds want to know….
As I predicted earlier this month Reid is about to bring out a bill more radical than that labored over in the Senate Finance Committee (which bill was also a joke). There’s no bipartisanship in this effort and Reid is even losing Democrat support.
It will be very interesting to watch how this shakes out.
I think he will manage this time. Reid is like cats, the always falls upright.
I think this opt-in/out thing is being pushed not only for the reasons Mata has alluded to, (the feds being able to hold funds hostage), but also because most of the states have demo’s in-power for the time being.
Anyone else recall the “Opt Out” routine vis a vis the Porkulous Bill?
Ask SC Gov. Mark Sanford how that worked out.
I wouldn’t pay much attention to Sore Loserman. He does this every so often just because he likes to be in the limelight. He knows damn well that if he screws the dems on a major issue like healthcare reform, his committee chairmanships will be taken away and his influence will fall off a cliff. Joementum is a weasel and his only concern is himself. There’s no chance in hell he won’t vote for cloture. Harry Reid knows this.
I wish I had your gifts Dirty Sanchez.
The ability to know what Lieberman likes.
The ability to know what Lieberman knows.
The ability to know what the status of his future chairmanships are.
The ability to forecast his influence.
The ability to know how he’ll vote.
And the ability to know what Reid knows.
You’re freakin amazing, man. I hope you’re not wrong about any of these, because heaven forbid, I might think less of you.
Man oh man, I can tell you guys are not boxers. This is such a feint jab that it is obvious. Dirty Harry has no intention of trying to pass this crap but he will use it to trap people like Snowe who have already committed to a trigger public option. When they come out with their new and improved plan it will seem so mild compared to this one that even some R’s will vote for it. Throw in a little bit of tort reform and Obama will look like Thomas Jefferson! I believe that only in politics is willful deception considered an attribute.
@Inspectorudy
I’ll bet my right foot that Mata is already three moves ahead of Harry and Nancy, and that Mike’s left-cross is waiting to be sprung. 😉
I learned a long time ago, you can never judge whether a man is a boxer until he starts throwing those hands. Obama is about to receive a sharp left jab from the American people. Next year they will go to the body to demoralize and weaken him, next November they will unleash the overhand right that will leave him helpless and impotent. After that it will be two long years of endless campaigning before he is KO’ed with a devastating hook to the liver. My favorite punch, there ain’t no coming back after the old liver punch.
Overmatching yourself is a big mistake in boxing and politics, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, have all let their alligator mouths over match their humming bird asses.
There are more boxers and MMA fighters out there than you may realize, many of them have class, some don’t. In every fight there is a winner and a loser. A winner can win with class and be admired for his sportsmanship and character; a loser can lose with class and maintain his dignity. I don’t think Obama will lose with class.
If he were a member of the Republican party y’all would be calling him a Backstabbing Bastard ( which he is ) SanDirty chez is right Joe the Undecided only likes being in the limelight. He should have been removed from his position when he ran against ” HIS ” own party. Whatever that is to him. Hell who knows. He will probably endorse the Smurf’s party in the next election. Anything to be different or maybe whatever his check signers tell him to do. He is a Loserman. Anyone that would consider what he’s done over his “backstabbing ” career worthy of praise is an idiot. I agree that even if your a member of a certain party that you don’t have to agree with everything within the party. However you cannot be a leader in the party and try to sabotage it at the same time.
. The same way Hack called Olympia Snowe a Bitch.
Oh by the way. If anyone had any questions as to why Rush LAMEbaugh didn’t get to be an owner of a NFL franchise just listen to the last statement that he made about President Obama. If you didn’t hear he referred to him as a Little Boy… again. You may not care for our President but you don’t refer to any grown man as a Boy. But diffently not the President of the United States. It was simply meant to be disrespectly and to sound like the racist that he his. His mouth is the reason only that the drones follow him. But people with common sense don’t fall for his crap and don’t want anything to do with him. I applaud the players and owners the kicked his sorry ass to the curb.
@Left is Right:
Oh my. After that rant about Joe Leiberman you jump all over Rush for calling Obama a little boy. Quite the hypocritical cry baby we have here.
Although you are stamping your tiny little feet about Joe Leiberman, he is not the only Senate democrat not on board with this fiasco. What about Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Evan Bayh?
I’m not sure Claire McCaskill is a strong supporter, she’s catching a lot of flack from her Missouri constituents and waivors from time to time. Why aren’t you childishly altering their names.
BTW, he may be a grown man but, he’s immature, the reference to being a little boy has nothing to do with race.
I often referred to Obama as the manchild when he served as my senator. We’ve already suffered through his lies and childish behavior from his time in our State Senate through his short service in the U.S. Senate.
He hasn’t changed one bit, he’s a nothing riding on the backs of everyone around him. But, I guess like attracts like, he took advantage of the hard work of his fellow senators in Illinois to create a false record, you take advantage of the liberal talking points of his false record.
So far, he’s done nothing but sign his name and party like theres no tomorrow, the work has been handed down for someone else to put together, being president is easy for him, just like serving in Illinois.
As to Claire, we HATE the Woman here… if it weren’t for St. Louis, and Kansas City, the 2 liberal BASTIONS of this state…. she would never have won!!
As to “the public option”…. WHY won’t those pushing it, EXPLAIN to us how well the ONLY true test we’ve had of that tye of program in the U.S. is doing???? MASSACHUSETTS??????
Oh, because it’s FAILING and beginning to suffer a horrible death perhaps?????
@Hankster58:
Welcome Hankster! We will someday be permanent residents of Missouri, property in NW MO. While down there we listen to 710 Kansas City radio in the morning, they’ve really been chewing on McCaskill for quite some time.
She seems perceptive to the mood of her constituents, but like you, all our friends in MO hate her, don’t know if she’s going to be able to repair her reputation. But, then again, the democrats have a way of finding/creating votes in KC and St. Louis. I still remember following their election back in 2000 when they kept the polls open, causing Ashcroft to lose to the corpse.
Also read the St. Joe paper and the Kansas City Star, the Star is rather liberal but, better than the other choice, the Des Moines Register, their crossword even stinks. Love perusing, I think it’s called the “It’s Your Call” column in the St. Joe paper, the comments were pro-Obama, their moods have definately changed.
Cool! Missouri is a pretty good state to live in overall…… The nickname around the state is the K.C. “RED” Star!!! thier political stance has earned em that one…. as you’ve already figured out! Yep those Dems always seem to find a way to “cheat”, don’t they!!! Me?? My “solution” was simple, after the last election, THROW AWAY all existing voter registration records, NATION WIDE, and re-register everyone, with STRICT I.D. guidelines…. with the same rules we use for voting…. go to YOUR precinct….polling judges from BOTH parties are always there, Show I.D., to voting judges from BOTH parties!!! would ensure the BEST possible way to CLEAN voter rolls…, simple and effective. No more “Motor Voter….no more ACORN type registration… you want to vote, go to the local registrars office and show ID to get on the rolls…. best way to ensure fair elections… oh, and no more LOST VOTES…. people entrusted with delivering the box of votes. if you “lose them” in your cars trunk… if “misplaced votes” majically appear you get a free ticket to LEAVENWORTH! Voter FRAUD>> same deal… no appeal, no plea bargain.
The main reason the Country is so screwed up it no punishment for crime and no FEAR to justice!!! Time to make crime SCARY again!!! Maybe THEN we’d see things get better!!
Sorry for the rant….. Hank