A twofer from Joementum this morning. First, a source who was present at the scene reports:
In the stakeout after Face the Nation, Joe Lieberman excoriated the decision to give the vaccine to GITMO terrorists and not to pregnant women.
And second, from the Hartford Courant, a Lieberman op-ed against the public option:
We can make these important changes and reforms this year if we work together. Unfortunately, rather than focusing on what works and fixing what doesn't, Congress is getting bogged down in a divisive debate over whether to create a government-run health insurance company - the so-called public option.
Medicare teaches us about the fiscal implications of creating a government health insurance program. In 1965, when Medicare was created for seniors, we thought the cost of the program would be $3.1 billion by 1970. In 1969, however, the estimate was revised to $5 billion, and, in the end, it cost taxpayers $6.8 billion. Today, Medicare costs taxpayers more than $400 billion annually.
Finally, making taxpayers assume the financial burden for an expansive new government entitlement program will make it harder for us to save Medicare. A new public option will likely increase premiums for the 170 million Americans who already have private insurance, and let's not forget the warning of the Congressional Budget Office: that the federal government will assume the financial risk that the premiums charged in a given year may not cover all of the public plan's costs.
Given our exorbitant debt and deficit, the taxpayers cannot afford to take on the financial responsibility to pay the difference, which would threaten to put our country even deeper into debt, just when we need to start thinking about how to climb out. As President Obama said, "Our health care problem is our deficit problem." We must make it better, not worse.
How are the Dems going to pass a public option without Joe?
