And who believes Moaning Scrotum Lieberman cares about facts? He's just stringing buzz words together for the cameras and microphones. He's a whore on many levels. And whatever it takes to get this tube's vote on cloture, Obama had better do it.

And when the CBO scoring comes out showing that the public option is the most fiscally responsible alternative, what will Joe do? Put his fingers in his ears and say "La-la-la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you-la-la-la-la-la"?

"Mainers need to crowd Queen Olympia out of the Senate at their next opportunity."

Never happen, regardless of how she votes on HCR. That's why they hold so little leverage over her and why they've been kissing her arse. You can't scare her with "your constituents wants this". While true, they like and trust Snowe and will give her a pass if she votes against HCR because it includes a PO. They'll rationalize it and vote her back into office as long as she continues to run.

Lieberman, on the other hand, is probably a dead man walking regardless of how he votes on this thing. With him, you have the opposite problem. He knows he's gone after 2012 so he's going to take the time he has left to get revenge for losing a Dem primary fair and square (then getting re-elected) and for Reid and Obama going to bat for him - after he was one of the biggest supporters of the GOP presidential candidate - to insure that he could remain in the caucus with his seniority and committee chair intact.

Olympia, please explain something to us. If you've got several million people whom the insurance companies refuse to insure, or whose conditions they refuse to cover, or whose premiums and deductibles are so goddam high that they can't afford to keep their coverage, how is it hurting the insurance companies to offer those people coverage with a public option?

To put it a little more simply, how can it hurt the insurance companies if someone else insures the people that they don't want anyway?

That's not unfair competition. It's not competition at all. The insurance companies aren't competing for those customers. If they really wanted them, they wouldn't jack up their rates. They'd offer them a better deal. That's how the market is supposed to work. If you want more customers, you don't make your product so expensive and restrictive that tens of millions of people can't afford it.

Or are you still unaware of the 47,000 people who die each year because they can't afford health care insurance?

I wrote Sen. Lieberman (using a CT McDonald's address) telling him I wish I could be there just before he falls asleep knowing that his denial of the public option will have killed millions of Americans. I pointed out to him how in the past Republicans regretted voting no on the Medicare bill when it first came up. I asked what has happened to him. Finally I told him to join the Republican Party since he is such a sell out.

Joe slithered out of his hole for a little sunshine and a meal. He's got his sunshine from the glow of the media spotlight, now he needs his meal from President Obama and Harry Reid. They need to toss this a piece of meat so we can get on with it.

"I believe in, to the extent possible, to allow the private sector to provide a solution," Snowe said.

We have. For 30 f***ing years. And they've failed. What part of "failed" are you having trouble understanding? They have a track record! And a HUGE one at that!

The belief that the private sector is best for everything has become a religion to the Right, no matter how much evidence pours in showing that it is not always the best solution. Look at the fiasco of private contractors in Iraq. Look at the current state of healthcare. Look at Medicare Advantage (private companies providing Medicare insurance) which costs the taxpayers 14% more than traditional Medicare.

Do I want the government building our cars? Deciding upon computer technologies? Picking the TVs we're supposed to buy? Hell no!

But do I want private industry deciding which weapons our troops will use? Deciding which roads will and won't be maintained? Do I want them running the Post Office? Running Social Security? Choosing which procedures they will or won't cover? Hell no!

There are just some things that the government does best, and others private industry does best. And universal health coverage is not one of the things that private industry does best. They've proved it over the past several decades.

shmoe lieberman is constitutionally incapable of doing the right thing in general, and nuptially incapable of acting in the interests of anyone but the health insurance industry

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060712_conason_lieberman_drug_lobby/%60

The private sector has never NOT had an opportunity to show what it can do. And what can it do?

Enron, MCI/Worldcom, Silverado Savings & Loan, Bernie Madoff, Halliburton, Jimmy Hoffa in cement and the Triangle Shirt Factory fire.

Thenks, but no thenks.

So if these are his only problems with the bill, when Joe is shown that the PO will actually save the government money and that it will be funded by premiums, he will go back on TV, explain that he misunderstood a bill he had not yet read, and then enthusiastically vote for cloture and the bill. Yeah, right.

In defense of Joseph Lieberman (I-Aetna Health Insurance), it needs to be noted that in his party of one, Connecticut for Lieberman, Holy Joementum is on the ultra-radical Progressive wing of his political party.

Actually, Obama endorsed and contributed to Lamont in the general election.

Leiberman isn't interested in doing the math. If it's not about him, he's not interested.

Once the CBO scoring comes out, how stupid will all of these blue dogs and Lieberman look? As for the insurance companies, I couldn't care less about them. This is a lesson for everyone who voted for her and Lieberman. Know your candidates. On the plus side, I suspect that this is both his and Snowe's last time in public office. We will hopefully purge many of the traitors! Any Dem who has a problem with the public option has a problem with a staple of the Democratic platform and should switch parties in the next election. The only thing you'll find in the middle of the road is roadkill! Just ask CNN!

Lieberman is scum. Everyone that breaths politics has known it for a long time. That is not a news story. While the details of what is going on give us and the media something new to chew on everyday, we forget the big overall story, and that is that Obama is not out front fighting for REAL reform advocating for a cost saving government plan that would cover everyone. He has taken the backroom industry deal brokering route that protects the extortion of the insurers and Pharma. It is a fundamental betrayal of his campaign healthcare platform. The outrage should be at the feet of the President. He has not demonstrated any leadership on healthcare and has sided with the enemy instead of us. Obama created an enthusiastic movement and was elected because he promised to be transparent and reject the sleazy politics of Washington. He is loosing his base because he is governing just the opposite. Lieberman, Nelson, Lincoln, Bayh would not be distractions if the President was out front leading. Senators do what is in their personal best interest. Obama has the power to make that best interest joining forces with the majority. The fact that he doesn't is the real healthcare story. The base is asking, "Whose side is he on?" The evidence is providing a disappointing answer.

Ziggy -- Are you snarking? Or just an idiot? 'Man of his word?' When he said in the 2006 campaign he would help 'bring universal health care to Connecticut'? 'Fighting for his state'? You mean, the state in which 70 percent want the public option? When he promised Reid he would be there for procedural votes if he kept his chairmanship? Joe 'It's a Short Ride for Rape Victims to Another Hospital' Lieberman? Yes ... we all see you are a 'dyed-in-the-wool conservative.' A truth-teller; a fine specimen of compassionate humanity.

What is the end state? I am paying nearly $700 per month for med and dental ins. What does anybody expect the cost reduction to be after a 2 trillion dollar investment over 10 years?

Will I see a savings of 10%, 20% or no change at all?

Is it true that only 10% of the population will qualify for the PO? If so... how will a PO be a competitor to bring down costs? Are they going to force practices to accept the new PO? more and more are not taking new medicare patients?

Really folks - are being led down a primrose path. Are we so willing take on all this debt without a clear plan?

The only guarantee in all this is that Uncle Sam will be getting more money from the taxpayer. No guarantees or even a coherent plan to benefit the end user - none!

Seems to me no one is attacking the root causes of why is the cost of HC is so high? Just putting lipstick on a pig.

Seems we already have a huge player in this system Medicare and Medicaid yet with all that competition/dollars in the market place still can't control the costs.

it's based in a belief that a new government "entitlement" will end up being a large burden on taxpayers
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It's tools like this that are a burden to taxpayers. He does NOTHING for his constituents, takes blood money from lobbyists and then doesn't give a rat's ass about his fellow Americans that are dying every day due to lack of health care. IT is high time to exact term limits and kick these old farts to the curb with their old ways. Time to get up with the times and update things to work with us NOW. I don't know if America can survive until these old GEEZERS die off.