Cracks Appear Within Senate Democrat’s Support of Health Care
Democrats basked in the sun of Saturday night’s victory that garnered the necessary 60 votes to proceed their health care package to the Senate floor. Now the dawn of reality sets in.
Suddenly the 60 becomes 56 – at least four Senators are adamant that they do not support the legislation in any current configuration that includes the public option. Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), called any plan that contains the option “radical.”
“We have a health-care system that has real troubles, but we have an economic system that is in real crisis,” Lieberman said. “And I don’t want to fix the problems in our health-care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis.”
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), has stressed his opposition to the proposal as currently written. “I don’t want a big-government, Washington-run operation that undermines the private insurance that 200 million Americans now have,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
According to The Washington Post, Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) also have deep misgivings about the Senate language — a public option with a state opt-out clause — and have expressed varying degrees of unhappiness about other approaches under consideration.
On the other hand, liberal Democrats are adamant that they will press forward with the legislation as it is currently written. “I don’t want four Democratic senators dictating to the other 56 of us and to the rest of the country — when the public option has this much support — that [a public option is] not going to be in it,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The Post stated that while Reid is managing Democratic skirmishes, Republicans are expected to offer their own series of provocative amendments, including measures related to abortion and illegal immigration intended to underscore the GOP’s argument that Democrats are orchestrating a government takeover of the health-care system.
“The important thing is for the American people to understand that this bill doesn’t fix what’s wrong with health care,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a physician who is expected to play a prominent role in the floor debate, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We’re treating symptoms, not the disease.”
Bottom line: It is very doubtful that President Obama will find a neatly tied health care package under any of the White House Christmas trees in 2009.
