U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Thursday that he is now undecided on health care reform – adding that he is concerned that Democrats might use the “reconciliation” process to pass reform with 51 votes in the Senate.<\/p>\n
“I’m undecided at this point how I will vote,” Lieberman said in a conference call Thursday afternoon with Connecticut newspaper reporters.<\/p>\n
Lieberman said he finds much to like about the health care bill, calling it “good and important.”<\/p>\n
But the reconciliation process has been highly controversial as Republicans and others have complained that a bill as important and significant as health care reform should not be passed on a partisan basis.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “Most of the big social changes have been adopted with bipartisan votes,” Lieberman said, adding that using reconciliation is not “the best way to do this for a lot of reasons.”<\/p>\n “None of us has actually seen the reconciliation package,” Lieberman said shortly after 12 noon. He noted that he will have at least two weeks to make his decision before the Senate’s Easter and Passover break in late March.<\/p>\n Lieberman said both sides “bear some blame” for the fact that health care bill is not a bipartisan effort. “It takes two to tango,” he said, alluding to the GOP.<\/p>\n In the context of the sharply partisan atmosphere that permeates much of Washington, anger over the health care bill could spill over into a bipartisan effort to craft a sweeping climate change and energy independence bill, Lieberman said.<\/p>\n He recounted a conversation with an unnamed Senate Republican who told him that all thoughts of bipartisanship in the Senate would be derailed for the rest of the legislative session if the Democrats push through health care with 51 votes. The environmental and energy bill would be stalled if the health care bill is passed because “no one will vote for it because they will be so angry,” Lieberman said he was told.<\/p>\n The Republican senator told him to “forget it for bipartisan cooperation for anything for the rest of the session,” Lieberman said, adding that he wants to avoid the situation “where the Senate essentially breaks down.”<\/p>\n The climate change-energy independence bill is being cobbled together by Lieberman, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Lieberman said he hopes the group will be able to release a “detailed outline” of the measure next week. “We’ve got the pieces of the puzzle on the same tabletop,” he said. “Now we’ve got to put them together.”<\/p>\n A vote could come this spring and he remains optimistic for the bill’s chances for passage. “I think we’ve got a chance…I’m really committed to negotiating in a way that gets something started on a solution to these problems this year,” he said. “We’d each have to leave our comfort zone.”<\/p>\n