Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has a lesson for fellow legislators: wait until legislative proposals have been unveiled in writing before making final judgments (unless those proposals involve the public option or a Medicare buy-in).
“One of the things we’ve learned in the hectic last couple of weeks is that we all ought to be looking at paper,” Lieberman told reporters this morning. “We ought to be looking at specific legislative language before we say I agree or I object.”
Of course, Lieberman has objected to a public option compromise, that would allow people age 55-64 to buy into Medicare. “But to be as explicit as I can be now, if, as appears to be happening, the so-called public option government run insurance program is out, and the Medicare buy-in…is out, and there’s no other attempts to bring things like that in, then I’m gonna be in a position where I can say–I’m getting to the position where I can say what I wanted to say all along: that I’m ready to vote for health care reform.”
So if all of his demands are met, then maybe he’ll likely vote for reform.
Lieberman doubled down today on his explanation of why he supported the Medicare buy-in just three months ago.
“I did that before the Finance committee came out with this very large–and again, I’d say generous, but I support it–system of subsidies, to bring, basically lower-middle income people into the health insurance system,” Lieberman said.
I asked, “weren’t those subsidies baked into the health care reform architecture long before that, with the HELP Committee bill…”
“Not to that extent,” he said.
OK then.
