 |
Specter Against Health Care |
 |
Arlen Specter, our newest Democrat, answered my question as to why he voted against the budget on Meet The Press today. Turns out, it’s because he doesn’t want to give Americans health care:
Transcript (h/t to C&L):
Gregory: It was reported this week that when you met with the President, you said, “I will be a loyal Democrat; I support your agenda.” Let me test that on probably one of the most important areas of his agenda and that’s healthcare. Would you support healthcare reform that puts up a government-run public plan to compete with a private plan issued by a private insurance company.
Specter: No. And you misquote me, David. I did not say I would be a loyal Democrat. I did not say that. And last week, after I said I was changing parties, I voted against the budget because the budget has a way to pass healthcare with 51 votes, which undermines a basic Senate institution to require 60 votes to impose cloture on key issues.
So, Specter voted against the budget because the budget made it easier to pass health care? Thanks for standing up with such integrity for that smoothly-running, intensely logical thing we call the “Senate institution.”
Specter goes on to outline his alternative to health care. He starts out by saying he “wants everybody covered,” and then goes on to explain how he supports all kinds of things - exercise and diet, comparative effectiveness research, prosecution of Medicare fraud, health IT - that have nothing to do with getting everybody covered. Really, the only plan for coverage he says he supports is the two-year-old Wyden bill, which isn’t really moving in the Senate.
So, great. Specter, fresh off his flip-flop to the Democratic party, is rationalizing voting against one of President Obama’s biggest priorities - the budget - because he doesn’t want to deliver on another of Obama’s biggest priorities - health care. Looks like we’ve picked a winner with this one!
Luckily, some real progressives are fighting for the public health insurance option.
