I don’t think it is betraying any confidences to divulge that I received an email from Atrios about ten days ago or so where he suggested that we really ought not to show any enthusiasm for the Medicare Buy-In plan lest Joe Lieberman decide that he’s against it. I laughed at the idea because it had a ring of truth to it. Turns out, Atrios was right on the money.
And [Lieberman] said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.
“Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it’s the beginning of a road to single-payer,” Mr. Lieberman said. “Jacob Hacker, who’s a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, ‘This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.'”
It turns out that Lieberman just made up the part about Professor Hacker, but the Weiner part of it is accurate enough. Essentially, Lieberman heard that Dean and Weiner and a lot of the blogosphere were happy about a Medicare Buy-In proposal, which was something he himself has supported, and that was enough for him to spike the idea. Maybe we should find out how Lieberman likes to get to work and just go park our cars in the middle of those streets each morning. You know, just because we can.
