Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)–the leader of the Blue Dogs’ Health Care Task Force–says he will vote against health care legislation if it includes a public option.
“I have been skeptical about the public health insurance option from the beginning and used August to get feedback from you, my constituents,” Ross wrote in a newsletter to constituents. “An overwhelming number of you oppose a government-run health insurance option and it is your feedback that has led me to oppose the public option as well.”
“[I]f House leadership presents a final bill that contains a government-run public option, I will oppose it,” he added.
After blocking progress on House health care legislation in the days leading up to August recess, Ross struck a deal and voted to move health care legislation out of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Then he went home and boasted that he’d held health care reform “hostage.”