That’s the pop psychology question of the hour as Congress tries to pass health reform. It concerns Connecticut’s maverick U.S. senator, Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman found himself meeting with the White House this week and in the driver’s seat of maneuvering over an historic health care reform bill.
He landed there after a remarkable reversal of position.
Until last week Lieberman was on record supporting allowing 55-to-65 year-olds to join the Medicare program as an alternative to a new “public option” government-run insurance plan. He pitched that idea as recently as three months ago in a meeting at the Connecticut Post. (Click on the video to watch. Read about that here.)
Because Lieberman is the 60th vote needed to pass a health reform bill, Democratic Party leaders crafted a compromise last week based on that Medicare idea.
Then Lieberman went on national TV Sunday and declared: If that Medicare idea is in the bill, he’s going to prevent the whole schmear from passing.
Which sent the Obama administration and Senate Democratic leaders scrambling yet again to find a way to secure Lieberman’s support.
Why’d he do it?
“I don’t have a theory. I am puzzled by that apparent reversal in the space of a week,” said New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney, a longtime Lieberman supporter.
Other Connecticut Lieberman-watchers do have theories. The top five theories follow. Check them out — and then offer your own view in the comments section below.
He Really Means It. That’s Lieberman’s claim. He now says the country can’t afford a Medicare expansion. He told the Times Monday that he hadn’t remembered advancing the Medicare idea before, and that besides he meant a different version of the Medicare idea when he advanced it in the past. The right-wing Republican press has been hailing him as a hero of conscience.
Lieberman issued a statement Tuesday afternoon “clarifying” his position along those lines. He said that when he supported including more people in Medicare during the 2000 presidential campaign, the country was in better economic shape. And no larger health reform proposal was under serious consideration.
Similarly, he said his remarks to the Connecticut Post “were related to past ideas for health care reform I have considered or supported, and were made before we had a bill for consideration on the Senate floor that contains extensive health
insurance reforms, including limiting how much more insurance companies could charge individuals based on age and providing subsidies that would specifically help people between the ages of 55 and 65 to afford health insurance.”
“Any inclusion of a Medicare buy-in for that same age group would be duplicative of
what is already in the bill, would put the government on the hook for billions of
additional dollars that are not paid for, and would potentially threaten the solvency of Medicare, which is already in a perilous state,” Lieberman said. “I also had concerns
that this provision would result in cost-shifting that would drive up premiums for the 180 million Americans who now have insurance.”
New Haven State Sen. Toni Harp (pictured), a leading voice in Hartford on health care, subscribes to this theory, even though she differs with Lieberman on health care.
“I think he meant it. When he had more information, he realized it was not do-able,” Harp said Tuesday.
“The first thing that came to my mind is that he had said it [backing the expansion idea] before he ran the numbers. After he saw the costs, he probably realized that it was not affordable.
“He [also] probably polled a number of groups from doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. I don’t think any of those groups would like it. Medicare reimbursement has gone down the past five years. It’s not likely to come back up.”
Harp said she personally believes that there’s no choice but to include a Medicare expansion if Congress drops the public-option plan. Uninsured people between 55 and 65 right now cost the most to insure — and therefore have the hardest time getting insurance. “If you are not working and uninsured, it’s almost impossible to get insured” at that age, Harp said. And it costs us more when they end up going to the emergency room for non-emergency care.
He Just Wants To Kill The Bill At All Costs To Get Revenge On The Democrats. According to this theory, Lieberman has never stopped simmering over losing the 2006 Democratic primary and having to run as an independent to retain his seat. So he backed the Republican candidate for president in 2008 — and was the chief mainstream attack dog, suggesting Democrat Barack Obama could be a Marxist.
Like Any Politician, He Tries To Be The Go-To Guy, The Last Person Needed To Pass A Law. That puts you in the spotlight. And it enables you to bargain for concessions you believe in, like … expanding Medicare?
“He’s put himself in a very powerful position. Most senators do that if they find the right time and the right timing to have an impact on a huge debate,” observed Connecticut Republican Chairman Chris Healy.
Healy embraced all three of these theories. Lieberman has been consistent in saying that the government can’t afford massive new spending in a recession, especially after the Wall Street and Detroit bailouts, Healy said. And “if you read some of the recalcitrant left-wing bloggers, I don’t blame him. I might do it for spite too!”
The Insurance Industry Owns Him. Lieberman was the second-highest recipient of insurance campaign cash in the 2006 Senate races across the country. He led a similar charge against universal health care when then-President Clinton sought it in 1994. Lieberman disagrees with this theory, pointing out that he has backed some legislation the industry opposes.
Tom Swan has pushed this theory since 1994. Then as now, Swan has been promoting universal health care — and opposing Lieberman — as executive director of Connecticut Citizen Action Group. (He took a detour to run Democrat Ned Lamont’s 2006 Senate campaign against Lieberman.)
“The insurance companies wanted him to do this. They wanted a bill that guaranteed that they make more money,” Swan said Tuesday. “They’ve always made up more of his base” than fellow Connecticut U.S. Chris Dodd’s.
Swan also said he believes math might be at play: If Democrats succeed with health care, they’d have a better chance of building a filibuster-proof Senate majority.“If they get up to 61 or 62 he’d be irrelevant.”
Joe Lieberman Is A Republican.
"Lieberman was the second-highest recipient of insurance campaign cash in the 2006 Senate races..."
Flood his office w/ letters, calls and emails so he knows he is not representing most of his constituents. We should be ashamed of ourselves for electing him and allowing him to do this. He is essentially taking away lives that might have been saved w/ access to affordable health insurance. It is unconscionable.