Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has faced a series of disappointments in the last few days. The public option was nixed. The Medicare buy-in died. His single-payer amendment had to be pulled from the floor. As a result, he’s not in a position to support the bill yet–“I’m not there,” he said today–and he’s working with leadership to figure out a way to vote for cloture. But he thinks Democrats missed a golden opportunity.
“If I had my druthers, i think reconciliation is an absolutely appropriate route to go,” Sanders told reporters. “I think what people who oppose that will tell you is that you can’t have the kind of comprehensive legislation that the Senate is trying to deal with now, and that may in fact be true. But there are a heck of a lot of things that you can do that would strengthen our health care system in a cost effective way that could be a giant step forward for the American people.”
“I certainly would’ve appreciated that route,” he said.
That puts him slightly at odds with other public option champions in the Senate–most notably Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)–who in recent weeks have articulated the Democratic leadership’s view that reconciliation is off the table, and not a good option for passing health care reform.
