Rep. Peterson a 'firm no' against House's healthcare bill

A staunch Blue Dog Democrat this weekend signaled he was a "firm no" vote against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (Calif.) recently unveiled healthcare bill.

"I mean, I have so many problems with this bill I don't even know where to start - too much government bureaucracy, not making the reforms that we need to make in the health care system overall," Minnesota Rep. Colin Peterson (D) told a local newspaper.

"I am a pretty firm no," Peterson added. "I wish people would quit asking about the public option because it's not what the issue is. This is complete ideology run amuck. The issue is we are not reforming Medicare. We are adding more entitlements without being able to pay for the entitlements we have now."

Peterson has always expressed his doubts about House Democrats' healthcare efforts, and he suggested as early as August that he would oppose his party's final bill, especially if it included a public option. 

But his statement this weekend nonetheless calls into question whether Speaker Pelosi's revised effort actually satisfies her party's more centrist members -- one of the targets of the bill's recent rewrite.

Presumably, the party will soon find out: Blue Dogs recently asked the Congressional Budget Office to revise their cost estimate of the bill to include a prediction about whether the proposal would bend the cost curve in the right direction. The results of that analysis, caucus leaders hinted in their letter, could affect how Blue Dogs ultimately approach their party's healthcare effort when it reaches the House floor.

“In order to make an informed decision about the legislation, we believe it is necessary to have a full and clear description of its long-term budgetary effects as CBO can provide,” they wrote to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf last week.

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