As the Associated Press has it, “[a]nother Republican senator says she’s open to voting for a sweeping health care overhaul this year.”
Reflexively, it makes sense to assume that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) might be a gettable vote for health care reform. She’s the moderate Republican besides her Maine colleague Olympia Snowe to vote with Democrats on major agenda items. But, as Greg Sargent notes, that’s almost certainly not going to be the case on health care reform.
Her official statement in response to the passage of health care legislation on the Senate Finance Committee was to lambaste it in pretty clear terms. AP appears to be basing their headline on her final words:
I share the goal of passing responsible health care reform and, working with members on both sides of the aisle who share these concerns, I am hopeful that many improvements will continue to be made to produce a bill that can achieve bipartisan support. Our goal should be legislation that protects affordable health care choices, safeguards Medicare, and reduces costs to the consumer and the taxpayer especially at a time when we simply cannot afford to pay more
Which could have come from just about any Republican. Back in September, TPMDC caught Collins saying she wasn’t supportive of either the public option or Snowe’s trigger compromise. Anything can happen, but her statement isn’t really a sign that something will.
