Public Option Fight Splits Stimulus Gang: Lieberman, Collins, Specter

A small band of Senate moderates who were essential to passing the stimulus package are trying to reunite on health care reform, but the public option remains a divisive issue.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) had only kind words for one another when they first rolled out a modest "tripartisan" cost-cutting amendment to the Senate health care bill on Friday, but in short order they were sniping back and forth about the public plan.

"It would be wrong and terrible for our country," said Lieberman, who repeated the Republican mantra that the public option would quickly lead to a single-payer health insurance system. While Collins cited Maine's poor experience with a statewide Medicaid supplement, Lieberman relied more on speculative arguments.

"A public option insurance company won't help a single poor person get insurance, it won't force a single insurance company to give insurance to people who are sick and it won't even contain costs," he said.

That's not true, Specter pointed out.

"The public option isn't single-payer, and it is not going to add to the deficit. It's going to be a level playing field," he said, adding that he "won't make any concessions" on the public plan. "I would like everyone to read the fine print, and for Susan and Joe to reread the fine print."

The three relative moderates were much chummier back in February, when Specter was still a Republican. He and Collins, along with conservative Democrat Ben Nelson (Neb.), were ultimately swayed to vote for the bill, thanks in large part to Lieberman.

That deal, however, largely turned on targeted cuts to state aid and other agreed-upon planks of the stimulus, rather than a fundamental policy argument. "This is not easily compromised," Collins said of the public option. "It's not like a funding dispute, where you can split the difference."

Still, the amendment process isn't over, and Specter evinced optimism that the other side will budge. "This bill may be so good, look so good to Senator Lieberman, that he may be willing to make some accommodations," Specter said, prompting tight smiles from the other two senators and a wave of laughter from the gathered press.

"That's not a laugh line," he said.

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Comments

[seajayh]

02:43 AM on 12/06/2009

In spite of what you hear in the news it does not take 60 votes in the Senate to pass a bill. It is not in the Constitution nor are there any laws that require 60 votes. The 60 vote barrier is an obscure Senate rule called the filibuster which requires 60 votes to end debate and get to a vote. This is a rule that can be changed.

In 2005 when Democrats used the filibuster Republicans threatened to end the practice in a move called the “nuclear option” which is a procedure for changing the filibuster rule. The mere threat of ending the filibuster caused the Democrats to back down from using it. Now the Democrats have a far larger majority in the Senate than the Republicans did and the Republicans are filibustering almost every bill. Their strategy seems to be to get America to fail and then run in 2010 on the idea that Democrats are as bad as they are. But the Democrats can put an end to the Filibuster and bring back majority rule as the Constitution intended.

[seajayh]

02:43 AM on 12/06/2009

So we don’t really need 60 votes to pass health care reform. We only need 50. It’s time the Democrats get tough and use the power that the People elected them to use. We need reform and this rule is in the way. The time has come for Democrats to step up and quit acting like they are in the minority and use the nuclear option and put the filibuster down. I think it would be a mistake for Democrats to allow the Republicans to steal back power in the 2010 election because of a record of failure.

[drricklippin]

08:53 PM on 12/04/2009

Rarely (maybe never) in our nation's history have the unlikey stars of morality and economics aligned on a major issue as the issue of long overdue US health care reform

NOW!

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa