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Some Senate Dems holding out hope on Medicare buy-in
Some Democratic senators are holding out hope that the Medicare buy-in is not dead, contrary to what their colleagues claim.
More liberal members of the Senate Democratic Caucus took to the airwaves last night to pledge continued fights for the Medicare buy-in and other provisions, despite acknowledgments by others that such measures are dead.
"We are not going to get the public option; we still hope we can get the Medicare buy-in," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said during an appearance Monday evening on MSNBC. "There's two more steps: there's cloture on the Senate floor, there's final passage, there's coming out of conference committee -- we're not giving up."
"This cake is far from baked. We are waiting now from the Congressional Budget Office, their positions," he said during a separate MSNBC interview. "I think we ought to send a message to progressives all across the country: let's keep fighting."
Indeed, the continued fights for the buy-in may be intended to serve just that purpose: sending a message to the liberal base that the party hasn't entirely given up on more aggressive health reform.
Democratic leaders acknowledged, though, that the provision -- itself a compromise in lieu of the public option -- is likely dead in a concession by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to win over centrist Democrats' support, specifically the vote of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
(Democrats are still awaiting the Congressional Budget Office score of the Medicare buy-in, however.)
Brown said he is "disappointed" Democrats couldn't get everything they wanted, but said that the preliminary floor vote, conference, and subsequent debate on the conference report would provide opportunities to Democrats.
"We're still going to fight in conference, before it's on the floor, and in conference committee to keep making the changes including, I hope, the Medicare buy-in. But all those are still on the table, as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Wyden, for his part, said that whatever Democrats pass would be to lay the foundation for further health reform efforts in the future.
"I think it's the view of the caucus that what we need to do is lay a strong foundation, a foundation that we can build on in the years ahead," he argued. "We are not going to get everything we want in round one."
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