Lieberman Threatens to Filibuster Reid’s Obamacare Bill

Posted on October 27, 2009

When you add Lieberman’s threat with Olympia Snowe’s vow to vote no on any opt-out public option it equals 41 votes.

“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”…
Lieberman did say he’s “strongly inclined” to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he’ll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn’t changed first…
“I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,” Lieberman added. “It’s just asking for trouble – in the end, the taxpayers are going to pay and probably all people will have health insurance are going to see their premiums go up because there’s going to be cost shifting as there has been for Medicare and Medicaid.”
That is enough to kill the bill, so why push it?

So why is Reid pushing it? Playing to the base to save his liberal credentials just to say he tried? But in the end of that scenario he leaves many Democrats opposing it vulnerable in reelection next year. The House is short on votes too.

The document shows that 47 House Dems are committed No votes, and eight are Leaning No, for a total of 56. That means of 256 House Dems, only 200 remain, and a dozen of those are listed as undecided. The bill needs 218 votes for passage.

How long can they drag this out? Anyway, pretty cool move by Lieberman.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post