[Peace-discuss] Seems right

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Published on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by The Plum Line
	Howard Dean: 'Kill The Senate Bill'
	by Greg Sargent

In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called 
for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this 
afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United 
States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, 
and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the 
interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, 
political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.

The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among 
liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, 
and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt 
Kinzel gave me, Dean says:

     “This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United 
States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, 
go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 
votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”

Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe 
Lieberman right now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.

Dean had previously endorsed the Medicare buy-in compromise without a public 
option, saying that the key question should be whether the bill contains enough 
“real reform” to be worthy of progressives’ support. Dean has apparently 
concluded that the “real reform” has been removed at Lieberman’s behest — which 
won’t make it easier for liberals to swallow the emerging compromise.
© 2009 The Plum Line