Joe Lieberman still claims he will vote against healthcare reform if there is a public option included

  Joe Lieberman is still adamant that he will not vote in favor of the healthcare reform bill if there is any form of a public option included in the bill. According to Lieberman he will not vote for the bill if it contains a state “opt out” option and he will not vote in favor of the bill if it contains a “trigger” option that would invoke the public option.

Can he support a public option if states could opt out of the plan, as the current bill provides? “The answer is no,” he says in an interview from his Senate office. “I feel very strongly about this.” How about a trigger, a mechanism for including a public option along with a provision saying it won’t be used unless private insurance plans aren’t spreading coverage far and fast enough? No again.

So any version of a public option will compel Mr. Lieberman to vote against bringing a bill to a final vote? “Correct,” he says.

  Under normal circumstances I would be heartened by Joe Lieberman’s words, but this is the same man that adamantly declared he would not even vote for cloture if the healthcare reform bill contained a public option, but the bill does and he did. We have heard this story before.

  I would like to take Joe Lieberman at his word but his recent actions are at odds with his recent words and I can no longer trust that this man is telling us the truth. I hope that he is telling the truth and I hope that he remains strong and firm in his stated beliefs but I held out hope that he meant what he said before the cloture vote and he backtracked and broke his promise.

  If Joe Lieberman holds true this time the healthcare reform bill will be in serious trouble but I just can’t help but think that he is just holding out for the same type of deal that Mary Landrieu secured for her state. 

  Joe Lieberman can no longer be trusted and can no longer be thought of as a man of his word. We have heard this story before Joe, and we are not buying it this time.