Lieberman on ObamaCare: First Do No Harm
Morgen on November 2, 2009 at 11:13 am
Senator Joe Lieberman (DI-CT) was on Face the Nation yesterday defending his announcement that he would support a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform if it includes the public option. The liberal blogs are up in arms today over Lieberman telling host Bob Schieffer that he would rather do “nothing” than have a public option. But he does a pretty darn good job of explaining why. Check out at least the first couple of minutes:
I think that a public option will actually hurt the economic recovery and our long-term fiscal situation. Because it will end up causing the government to raise taxes, will probably raise premiums, or it will put us further into debt.
You know the public option came out of nowhere. If you look at last year’s presidential campaign, Bob, no mention of it. The goal has always been – two goals – one is make health insurance more affordable, and two, extend it to people who don’t have it now.
The public option I think was raised in the last year by people who really want to have a government controlled health insurance system.
All I can say is – thank God for some common sense. I only have two nits with his comments. One, I think ObamaCare will manage to pull off the trifecta of higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, AND massive long-term debt. With or without the public option. And two, the public option did not come out of “nowhere”. It’s the central component of a long-planned, and well-executed strategy to have the government ultimately take over the healthcare system.
Unfortunately it’s not the only horror lurking in this bill. I headlined this earlier, but for an extremely sobering analysis of the disaster which awaits us, check out this editorial in the Wall Street Journal today. Scary, scary stuff.
Forget all the prognostications at this stage. No one really knows the fate of the public option. If Lieberman stands with all of the Republicans in the Senate (including Olympia Snowe), this all but assures the success of the filibuster. But who knows what sort of compromises will be offered, and back room deals discussed. The best outcome of all – one which would be truly miraculous at this stage – would be for the entire process to implode based on Democratic infighting over the public option.
I hold out very, very little hope for this. But what a just outcome this would be, considering the deceitful strategy liberals have been engaged in.
Category: Health & Education, Politics |
One minor nit to pick. As a former CT resident who lived there during the 2006 election, I voted for Senator Lieberman despite the fact that I am a libertarian leaning Republican. I quite vividly remember him being pushed out of the Democratic party by primary voters mainly due to his stance on the war in Iraq.
Your caption should read Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT).
November 2, 2009 @ 12:01 pmThanks Jeff – fixed. My original draft included the text “an Independent who typically caucuses with the Democrats”, so I shouldn’t have made that goof.
November 2, 2009 @ 12:09 pmGlad to contribute. You folks run an excellent site. I was initially drawn here by the series of posts on health care reform, but I can say that I find everything that I have read on politics and economics to date to be among the most balanced and intellectually honest opinion available on the web; right, left, or center. It is especially refreshing to see this available at a time when opinion in the mainstream media is so devoid of value to any thinking person. Unfortunately even worse than the awful commentary we see everyday is the danger to our society represented by the stealth partisanship in mainstream journalism. I love the First Amendment as much as any good American does, but when we cannot count on the news media to report the facts without the subtle (or overt) spin, I become depressed about our future. Keep up the good work.
November 2, 2009 @ 12:31 pmThe thing about the media is that as bad as they are, their power is fading. The internet, talk radio and Fox News have steadily eaten into the the MSM’s credibility with news consumers.
Think about the Van Jones debacle. If you were a reader of the New York Times, you didn’t know who Van Jones was, what position he had in the White House power structure or why he was getting the boot.
I’m not saying things are perfect, but it’s not as bad as we might thin-at least on the media front.
November 2, 2009 @ 2:49 pm[...] Confederate Yankee, Bloomberg, Verum Serum, Gateway Pundit, Power Line, Betsy’s Page, Wake up America, Fausta’s Blog and [...]
November 2, 2009 @ 4:54 pm