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Governors (And Candidates) Span Spectrum On Public Option Opt-Out

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It's been two days since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a health care bill with a public option that will allow states to opt-out.

As TPMDC wrote earlier, we still don't know the mechanism for how the states would get out (or in, if that were to happen) of the public option, but we took stock of some of the candidates for governor in Tuesday's races.

Our question: Would your state opt out of a public option?

The basic tally:

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine (D) would not. Challenger Chris Christie (R) would.

In Virginia, Bob McDonnell (R) would opt out and Creigh Deeds (D) is leaning toward opting out.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin told me:

"Bob McDonnell does not support nationalized heath care. As a result, he does not support Virginia's participation in a federal public health insurance system. As governor he would opt Virginia out of such a system.

Bob strongly supports promoting access to affordable healthcare. He believes that expanding and improving health care coverage lies in market based principles, not mandating a nationalized system that restricts choices, limits options and diminishes quality. Rather than centralizing control of health care at the federal level, or saddling Virginia businesses and workers with new mandates to pay for plans the government thinks they want, he believes we should let individuals and families control their health care decisions."

Corzine spokeswoman Lis Smith told Eric:

"Governor Corzine has been an outspoken supporter of the public option. He would not opt out of it, as the public option is a critical piece of making health reform sustainable and holding private health insurance companies accountable."

Christie's folks didn't respond to questions but in a debate the Republican candidate said he would work to expand private insurance.

"If I were given the choice, I would not expand or opt into a public option," he said.

We're starting to tally everyone, but here are a few early opinions.

Count Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) out. He told Fox News the plan "really a sham. It's a masquerade and it's something that's very, very, I think, disingenuous and very cynical."

We asked a spokesman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D), who was one of just six Democratic governors who did not sign a bland letter calling for health care reform.

Spokesman Jack Cardetti responded without really answering the question:

Gov. Nixon believes that the status quo is simply not acceptable when it comes to health care.

The governor has been making his case that Congress must address this issue in a smart way that lowers premiums for families, provides greater access to care, and doesn't place unreasonable unfunded mandates on state governments during tough fiscal times. The administration will continue to monitor health care reform as it moves through the legislative process.

Here's Pawlenty on Fox - he also offers praise for Sen. Joe Liberman.

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12 comments

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October 28, 2009 7:09 PM   

Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada was on Fox 5 Las Vegas either this morning or yesterday and he gave a very shaky answer. While not knowing the mechanism by which a state would have the ability to opt-out, he went on to criticize the who notion of a public-option as the usual "government takeover". I hope the law is written so that state legislatures are given the power, otherwise all of us with "talkingpoint thumpers" for governors or those with larger national ambitions will be left to fend for ourselves thank to thier political whims.

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October 28, 2009 7:11 PM    in reply to btbradley86

Stay in school kids...spelling and grammar check doesnt catch everything. :)

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October 28, 2009 7:14 PM   

With Ohio, so goes the nation. So they say.

Gov. Strickland told a Cleveland reporter he will not. Not entirely certain about his GOP opponent, Kasich. But if this is any indication (http://blog.kasichforohio.com/?p=653), then the answer may be fairly clear.

A recent poll puts them 1 point away for next year's election.

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October 28, 2009 7:23 PM   

Creigh Deeds could have used this as an opportunity to turn the race around. "A vote for McDonnell will give Virginia 2nd rate healthcare."

Of course, I have zero expectation that Deeds' campaign can do anything of value.

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slb

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October 29, 2009 2:18 AM    in reply to pdxer

Exactly why Deeds is trailing badly at this point.

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AJM

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October 28, 2009 9:26 PM   

Shorter McDonnell: I like it fine the way it is.

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slb

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October 29, 2009 2:20 AM    in reply to AJM

So does Deeds, apparently.

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TM

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October 28, 2009 9:52 PM   

Guess who would take a break off of hiking the Appalachian Trail to try to make sure the people in his state are totally screwed when it comes to healthcare?
I dont think they could get a optout bill through to his desk though.

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October 28, 2009 10:18 PM   

Not to sound mean or anything, but WTF should anybody care if the Red states want to screw their populations over? At this point, if you live in one of those states and don't agree with the knuckle-dragging hyper-religious idiocy, the best advice is to MOVE. Take your tax dollars and your count in the Census and move to a better state - quickly.

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October 28, 2009 11:05 PM   

The Republican governor of South Dakota gave his opinion on NPR today. He said SD would opt out and he offered at least three bullshit reasons. It was on Talk of the Nation and Neil Conan did a nice job calling him out on one of his fantasy excuses.

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October 28, 2009 11:33 PM    in reply to CallMeMabel

It's late and I didn't think I could remember the SD guv's flaccid excuses, though I clearly remember tallying three kraptastic evasions.

I gave it some more thought and in the interest of establishing a complete record on these pages, Mr. Redstate guv said;

Even though they'll opt out they'll have to 1) pay for it in increased taxes and, 2) unfunded mandates. Neil let him get away with the increased taxes lie and steered him toward unfunded mandates (increased Medicaid spending) which has nothing to do with the Public Option, though it is an element of health care reform. Unfortunately Neil didn't call him out on this one. 3) Private insurance will charge higher premiums because a) look-over-there mumbo jumbo that didn't make enough sense to track it, and b) they don't negotiate rates with providers only premiums with consumers. Wha?! On Planet Claire maybe

Oh yeah a 4th one; states do a better job than the national government regulating insurers even though one sentence earlier he said the Republican's counter offer to a Public Option was to get states to implement regulation reform because they're not doing a good enough job now. Neil didn't let him get away with this one.

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October 29, 2009 8:46 AM   

Can someone please explain to me: For every red state that opts out, will even more of our blue staters' federal tax dollars go to subsidize the insurance oligarchs who will continue to have a death grip on the red-staters eligible for subsidized premiums?

Will us non-insane types be paying the senseless extra costs imposed by the delicate teabaggers' aversion to Islamofascisthomo-communist gummint-takeover cooties?

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