Joe Lieberman claims he is against the Medicare buy-in option

  Depending on whom you listen to, the Democrats may have abandoned the public option in favor of a “broad agreement” that would allow people to buy into Medicare at the age of 55 and set up a national healthcare platform that would be run by private insurance companies. It was hoped that this “broad agreement” would give the Democrats the 60 votes needed to pass the healthcare reform bill, but it appears this may not be the case.

 Senator Lieberman– who stated that he would not allow any bill that contained a public option to even make it to the floor for debate, only to break his word and do just that– has now publicly stated that he will not support this bill even with the “broad agreement” that may or may not have been reached.

  After admitting that he– much like everyone else who will be voting on the bill– doesn’t know what is in the bill, he told CBS that he will not support the bill with this “broad agreement” in it.

I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did.”It will add taxpayer costs. It will add to the deficit. It’s unnecessary

  After telling CBS that he would not support the bill, he apparently said the same thing in a closed door meeting Harry Reid. I would like to take Joe Lieberman at his word, but he has already broken his word once on this very same issue, and he may have to choose between voting for the bill or losing his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. There is no doubt that he will be faced with the threat of losing this chairmanship if he votes against the healthcare reform bill. He will be faced with a tough decision and it will be interesting to see if he puts his principles above his prestige.