Sestak: I'd Have A Hard Time Voting For A Health Care Bill Without A Public Option
He left himself some wiggle room, but, in what appeared to be a challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) said he'd have a hard time voting for a health care bill without a public option.
Sestak is challenging Specter in the 2010 Democratic Pennsylvania primary.
Though Sestak said he could back something "similar" to a public option--a co-operative, for instance--he said that the co-ops that are on the table right now do not meet his criteria.
Specter now supports the creation of a public option, after having opposed it as a Republican and in his first days as a Democrat, but he hasn't drawn a line in the sand over the issue. Though progressive members of the Senate have been more reticent than their House counterparts about the importance of the public option, Sestak's statement does leave Specter an opening to stake out more liberal ground, and insist on one.
We'll have video for you shortly.
| TOPICS: Arlen Specter, Health Care, Joe Sestak, PA-SEN, Public Option, Senate '10
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Matt
Eric
Brian
Sestak said he would have a hard time voting for a bill without a public option. So where is the freak out, where are the denunciations and screams of betrayal. Does Sestak need to grow a pair also? Because that sounds like waffling to me. Sounds exactly like the same vagueness that brought the Obama Admin some serious scorn from the Left.
August 18, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's not a member of the Progressive Caucus and has always been known as a moderate. (He's just better than Arlen, is all). So from him, yes, this is good news and it was never a slam-dunk that he would go this far, let alone all the way to taking the pledge.
Jeez, you're really not very bright, are you.
August 18, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink