On Saturday night, the Senate voted to move health care legislation to the floor for debate in a close party-line vote of 60 to 39.
But two key centrist senators who voted to move the bill to debate, Ben Nelson, D - Neb., and Joseph Lieberman, who-knows-what-party - Conn., have vowed to vote against it if the “public option” remains, according to The New York Times.
Lieberman, who admits “we have a health care system that’s in trouble” (understatement of the week), follows by saying that “we have an economic crisis,” which he does not want to aggravate by passing a public option. He argues this plan could cost billions.
But the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan research agency within Congress, estimated that the bill would save $130 billion in the first 10 years, and $650 billion in the next 10 years — public option and all.
While Lieberman has a history of divisive splits from the Democratic majority, Nelson and other reluctant Democrats are alienating themselves by vocally criticizing the Democratic majority.
We say let them.
If senators like Nelson want to latch on to arguments straight out of Republican talking-point memos, like the notion that a public option would mean bureaucrats will invade doctor-patient relationships (citing recent mammogram guidelines), maybe the Democratic majority isn’t the best place for them.
The Democrats need to consolidate support for upcoming legislation, but some dissenters might need to be abandoned — in health care efforts and in their next re-election campaigns.
