Key Blue Dog: I Will Oppose Health Care Bill with Public Option

Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
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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.”

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