Politico: White House Tells Reid to Cut Deal with Lieberman on Health Reform

According to Politico, the White House has told Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid to "cut a deal" with the awful, corrupt and dishonest Sen. Joe Lieberman and remove the Medicare expansion provision from the Senate health care reform bill. We all know that Politico, backed by lots of right-wing money, isn't exactly the most credible source on "scoops" like this one but, given how things are going on the Dems' health care reform bill in the Senate, it's believable.

The article describes the reaction of Reid this way:

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

Oh, heavy. Reid will wait for the CBO report instead of telling the White House and Lieberman to take a walk right this minute. The Senate version of health care reform is already in poor shape, even WITH a Medicare expansion that will do nothing to help hold down premiums for ordinary people under the age of 55. In addition, people who sign up for Medicare on their own would have to shoulder the entire cost, unlike those 65 and older who get a subsidized price, until the insurance exchanges are put into place in 2014.

As usual, it was the incredibly unpopular White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who reportedly gave the order to kiss Lieberman's arse:

Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare. His comments on CBS’s “Face the Nation” set off a series of private meetings Sunday between the Senate leadership and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who encouraged Reid to cut the deal with Lieberman, the official said. The White House declined to comment.

Who else besides me thinks the White House should be playing hard ball with Lieberman instead of remaining silent and recommending a total capitulation to Lieberman? If I were the President (I know, I know), I'd get on national TV in prime time, castigate Joe publicly, and urge all Americans to contact his office to complain about his selfish, nonsensical anti-Democratic behavior. Next, I'd make sure that Lieberman's Chairmanship of Homeland Security is stripped ASAP.

According to a recent Research 2000 poll, 81% of Democrats want Lieberman stripped of his chairmanship; only 10% think not. Moreover, Independents agree, 43%-30%; and all voters also agree, 47%-32%.

How much longer can President Obama, who endorsed Lieberman in 2006 and chose him, of all people, to serve as his mentor when he was elected to the Senate, sit silent and permit Joe to aid Republicans in their quest to bring down Obama on the health care issue? Remember, it was also Obama who "signaled" to Dems that he wanted Lieberman to remain in the Dem caucus when Reid was thinking of booting him out of his chairmanship in November of 2008.