{"id":42776,"date":"2009-11-16T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"a0080eae-8df0-4c1c-825b-e7f91b08bad8"},"modified":"2009-11-16T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T16:27:00","slug":"eyes-turn-to-lieberman-reid-snowe-as-most-crucial-health-reform-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/42776","title":{"rendered":"Eyes Turn To Lieberman, Reid, Snowe As Most Crucial Health Reform Players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=20601103&amp;sid=a2B7VCqiMRMQ\" >Bloomberg<\/a> reports that Sen. Joe Lieberman&#8217;s &#8220;independence (is hindering) Democrats&#8217; health-care end game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0&#8220;While Lieberman still aligns himself with the Democratic caucus, his threat to block health legislation &#8216;as a matter of conscience&#8217; shows a growing willingness and confidence to stand on his own, analysts say. &#8230; Lieberman can influence the outcome because no Republicans have offered to support the overhaul measure from Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Lacking Republican allies, Democrats need all 60 members of their caucus, which includes Lieberman and Independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont, to bring the measure up for a final vote.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On the government-run public option plan, he told Bloomberg: &#8220;&#8216;I have no other choice,&#8217; Lieberman said in an interview with Bloomberg News. &#8216;I have to use the right I have as a senator to stop something I think will be terrible. I really want to vote for health-care reform.'&#8221; Some say Lieberman&#8217;s stance &#8220;reflects his ties to home-state insurers, say critics who protested outside his Washington office Nov. 10&#8221;\u00a0 (Gaouette and Salant, 11\/16). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/features\/The_Closers\/the_closers\/40542-1.html\" >Roll Call<\/a> profiles\u00a0Majority Leader Harry Reid (&#8220;The Ultimate Closer&#8221;) who has &#8220;emerged as the central player in President Barack Obama&#8217;s push to enact health care reform this year&#8221; and has 16 blurbs on\u00a0the major players in health care reform (Drucker, 11\/16). See the full list of profiles <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/features\/theclosers.html\" >here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In a separate story, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/features\/The_Closers\/the_closers\/40545-1.html\" >Roll Call<\/a>\u00a0profiles Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, whose &#8220;support will be crucial in crafting a more moderate compromise bill that ultimately is expected to emerge in the coming weeks.&#8221; She is keeping both sides guessing at what her final decision on reform will be (Murray, 11\/16). <\/p>\n<p>In Virginia, Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb are\u00a0making their voices, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.timesdispatch.com\/rtd\/news\/state_regional\/state_regional_govtpolitics\/article\/HEAL15_20091114-221806\/305775\/\" >Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/a> reports. &#8220;Virginia&#8217;s two senators are expressing concerns about costs\u00a0\u2014 in the expense of individuals&#8217; premiums and the rising federal deficit. While both are open to the idea of a public option, it&#8217;s not their priority&#8221; (Meola, 11\/15).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/khn\/fulltext\/~4\/WBxpXTL0Bpw\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bloomberg reports that Sen. Joe Lieberman&#8217;s &#8220;independence (is hindering) Democrats&#8217; health-care end game.&#8221; \u00a0&#8220;While Lieberman still aligns himself with the Democratic caucus, his threat to block health legislation &#8216;as a matter of conscience&#8217; shows a growing willingness and confidence to stand on his own, analysts say. &#8230; Lieberman can influence the outcome because no Republicans [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}