Harry Reid Ordered To Cut Deal With Joe Lieberman

White House to Harry Reid: Cut deal with Joe Lieberman



The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare. His comments on CBS’s “Face the Nation” set off a series of private meetings Sunday between the Senate leadership and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who encouraged Reid to cut the deal with Lieberman, the official said. The White House declined to comment.

Reid has called a special Democratic caucus meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday.

If they still hope to pass a bill by Christmas – which is still a top consideration at the moment — Democrats have only limited options:

• Reach an agreement with Lieberman, which would mean stripping out the provisions that have kept progressives on board. This will likely cause problems on the left – maybe even defections – unless the White House steps in to persuade senators such as Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

• Win over Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), but she has also voiced serious reservations about the Medicare expansion, and has resisted pressure from the White House and Senate Democrats to finish the bill by Christmas.

Reconciliation, a procedural maneuver to get around a filibuster, remains on the table, but it’s not a viable option at the moment, the official said. It would push the issue into next year with no guarantee of success.

Democrats are frustrated because they believe Lieberman keeps moving the goal posts. He supported the Medicare buy in the 2000 presidential campaign, and in September reiterated support for the plan in an interview with the Connecticut Post.

Lieberman has denied giving his approval of the Medicare buy-in during the negotiations last week among a group of 10 moderate and liberal senators.

"Contrary to the claims of anonymous aides, Senator Lieberman told Reid on Friday that he had problems with the Medicare provision," Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittman said in a statement.

"This position was also told to negotiators earlier in the week. Consequently, Senator Lieberman's position came as no surprise to the Democratic leadership. Any contrary charge by aides who cowardly seek to hide under the cloak of anonymity is false and self-serving," he added.

Wittman issued the statement in response to reports that Lieberman, according to anonymous Senate Democratic aides, had initially indicated support for a proposal allowing uninsured individuals as young as 55 to purchase Medicare coverage.


Sources: Politico

Lieberman Rejects Medicare Buy-In Plan...60 Votes Needed

Medicare Plan meets resistance

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Joe Lieberman says No to Medicare Buy-In


Sen. Joe Lieberman told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Sunday that he couldn’t support a new Medicare proposal floated as a compromise to the public option, a development that complicates the bill’s path towards passage before the end of the year.

In a meeting in Reid’s office just off the Senate floor, aides said the Connecticut independent reiterated his concerns with the public insurance option and told the Nevada Democrat that he couldn’t support a new plan to allow people as young as 55 to buy into Medicare.

“On Friday, Sen. Lieberman told Sen. Reid that he had problems with the Medicare buy-in proposal,” said Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for Lieberman. “Sen. Lieberman affirmed that position with Sen. Reid today.”

A Democratic leadership aide confirmed Lieberman’s comments in the face-to-face meeting, which was first reported by the Huffington Post.

Lieberman’s opposition means that Reid may once again be short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster if the majority leader moves forward with a health care bill that includes a Medicare buy-in proposal, whose costs are currently being analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office. Both Lieberman and fellow centrist Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) laid out their concerns Sunday with the Medicare buy-in plan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“On part of it - the so-called Medicare buy-in - the opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on," Lieberman said. "Though I don't know exactly what's in it, from what I hear I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did.”

Nelson worried that the plan was a “forerunner of single payer,” a label that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) strongly rejected.

The opposition from Lieberman and the concerns of centrists adds a new wrinkle to efforts by Reid to strike a compromise – since all 40 Republicans are expected to vote to sustain a filibuster. Reid will need the support of Lieberman, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and 58 Democrats to advance the measure.

If he kills a public option or the Medicare buy-in plan, he could lose the support of Sanders and several of the more liberal members of the Democratic conference. But keeping either of those plans, or one that would “trigger” a public option if private insurers don’t hold down costs, would lose Lieberman - forcing Reid to find at least one moderate GOP senator to advance the proposal.

To win the most likely potential GOP defector, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Reid would likely have to make modifications and slow the debate down since she’s signaled that the Senate needs to take more time to deal with the expansive issue.



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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps

Senate Medicare Buy-In Plan Hits A Wall...Bad Deal For Voters

Medicare Plan meets resistance

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Wealth over health in reform bill? Wendell Potter, former CIGNA Vice President, explains a loophole in the Senate health care reform bill, which bans insurance companies from putting lifetime limits on coverage but not annual limits.

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Medicare Buy-In Plan runs into resistance


A plan to let people as young as 55 buy into Medicare, heralded as a breakthrough in the Senate's health care debate, ran into resistance Sunday from lawmakers who can make or break Democrats' efforts to reshape the nation's health insurance system.

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut declared the early Medicare buy-in a bad deal for taxpayers and the deficit. He pleaded with Democrats to start subtracting expensive proposals from the overhaul, saying, "We don't need to keep adding onto the back of this horse or we're going to break the horse's back and get nothing done."

Government accountants are poring over the latest compromise proposals to see how much they would cost, and some lawmakers are reserving judgment until that plays out this week. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said she would "absolutely" vote against the package if it seemed destined to increase people's out-of-pocket costs and the national debt.

In the meantime, only a few moderates have come out against the Medicare plan. But in a legislative struggle that is a game of inches, Democrats need all 60 votes in their caucus, and they don't yet have them.

"I think it's going to pass out of the Senate before Christmas," President Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview airing Sunday night. Lieberman said there was a chance, if Democrats "bring in some Republicans who are open-minded."

But Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said no way: "With the American people as overwhelming opposed to this bill as they are, for the Democrats to basically arrogantly take the position that we're going to ignore public opinion and jam this through before Christmas, I think that's really a stretch," said McConnell, R-Ky.

Forerunner of Single-Payer?

The early Medicare buy-in was part of a compromise reached last week when Senate Democrats dropped the idea of setting up a federal health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. Many Democrats who had favored that public option only grudgingly let it go, in return embracing the Medicare proposal as an appealing way to help people 55 to 64 — a group often vulnerable to losing employer-based health insurance when it's needed the most.

Under the compromise, private nonprofit plans overseen by the federal government would be offered in the marketplace.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he was working with Lieberman and others on controlling Medicare costs, and he voiced confidence fellow Democrats can get past their divisions. Party leaders, resuming the debate Sunday, are pushing hard to finish the Senate overhaul legislation before Christmas and to begin negotiations with the House, which has passed its plan.

But while saying "I want to be a friend of the process," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., sounded distinctly down on the Medicare proposal.

"I'm concerned that it's the forerunner of single-payer — the ultimate single-payer plan, maybe even more directly than the public option," he said. By single-payer, he meant national health insurance run by Washington.

Nelson already says he won't support the bill unless fellow Democrats establish a firewall to ensure no public money goes toward abortion coverage.

Lieberman was a firm opponent of the bill's original plan for a public insurance option. Even with it out, he said he would find it hard to vote for the bill if it contains the Medicare buy-in as written. "The opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on," he said. Lieberman, Nelson, McConnell and Rockefeller spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation." McCaskill was on "Fox News Sunday."




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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps