Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid is still scrambling to find 60 votes to pass health care reform legislation in the senate before Christmas. One of the persons standing in the way is Senator Joseph Lieberman, (I-Conn.) who said on Sunday, he would join Republicans in voting down the bill.
Lieberman, who once supported the proposal to have uninsured individuals as young as 55 years old purchase Medicare coverage, seems to have flip-flopped and changed his mind.
On the CBS Sunday morning show, “Face the Nation”, Lieberman said of the Medicare proposal, “Though I don’t know exactly what’s in it, from what I hear, I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did”.
Politico: The opposition from Lieberman and the concerns of centrists adds a new wrinkle to efforts by Reid to strike a compromise – since all 40 Republicans are expected to vote to sustain a filibuster. Reid will need the support of Lieberman, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and 58 Democrats to advance the measure.
If Reid kills a public option or the Medicare buy-in plan, he could lose the support of Sanders and several of the more liberal members of the Democratic conference. But keeping either of those plans, or one that would “trigger” a public option if private insurers don’t hold down costs, would lose Lieberman – forcing Reid to find at least one moderate GOP senator to advance the proposal.
