Feeling like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to follow the HC happenings; today hit us with a huge story. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is prepared to back a potential GOP filibuster Reid's HC bill. I'm reading the story at Politico. More -
Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid has said the Senate bill will.
"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 said that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line."
His comments confirmed that Reid is short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill out of the Senate, even after Reid included the opt-out provision. Several other moderate Democrats expressed skepticism at the proposal as well, but most of the wavering Democratic senators did not go as far as Lieberman Tuesday, saying they were waiting to see the details.
Judging by the nutroots concerted reaction @ the Memeorandum thread on this news, this is a good development. Then again, they really hate this guy. You should see some of the stuff that I saw....
Commenters @ Think Progress -
EnnuiDivine says:
Screw subtlety. If Liberman supports the filibuster, come down on him like the Hammer of Johnson. Kick his ass out of the Caucus, force him to join the GOP. Scrap plans to pass the bill through a typical vote, ram it down with reconciliation.
Destroy him
Buckie Boy says:
This traitorous as$hole has got to go.
Why doesn’t LIEberman want heath care for the poor?
Oh, forgot they can’t donate to his coffers enough....
Liberal site OpenLeft has an interesting vid of Lieberman praising the virtues of Universal Care in 2006. Embedded from DailyKos, Watch it -
3 comments:
Pretty strange for a moderate politician to take such a strong stance on any issue, even something as blatantly poor as Obamacare. Even if he's reading public opinion and trying to get out ahead of the backlash from the massive expansion of spending and entitlement programs which is crippling the economic future of the country, it's a risky gamble. Usually politicians will sit on the fence as long as possible, if for nothing else to leverage indecisiveness into political favors and corrupt special-interest payouts. Unless he knows they're not going to be able to buy enough votes to pass the public option anyway, and he wants to be seen as the visionary who got off the ship before all the other rats.
You're right, though... kinda odd, but good news nonetheless.
@ Nick - I know what you mean, it's the 'bedfellows' thing, you never know who is going to do what...
Also, I am sure it has nothing to do with integrity although the Hannity's of the world will claim that to be true.
Short term good news yes. Long term? Shaky at best.
Unless, we get a national leader with true integrity and an unshakable belief in individualism, self reliance, and capitalism, one who has the ability to win the philosophical battle it will only be a matter of time before the inevitable.
As to Lieberman, I used to at least respect him. At this point I read him as an opportunist, as you say LCR, reading the tea leaves of public discontent.
In other words ya probably can't trust him.
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