Senator Klobuchar and the Public Option

Dear Friends,

In my February 23rd post entitled "The Public Option", I indicated that Senator Klobuchar had not signed Senator Bennet's (Democrat, Colorado) letter supporting enacting the Public Option as part of the reconciliation of the Health Care bill.  Technically, I was correct in that Senator Klobuchar has not signed the letter.  However, she did provide some support to the idea.  On February 17th in an article by Paul Schmelzer (here) it was reported that Senator Klobuchar lent her support to the idea.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is joining the chorus of Democratic senators who support the use of reconciliation — a procedural tool that would allow a bill to pass with a simple majority vote, thereby circumventing filibuster attempts — to pass health care reform measures. In a statement prepared for the Minnesota Independent, Klobuchar indicated she essentially agreed with Sen. Al Franken and nine other senators (eight Democrats, plus Vermont independent Bernie Sanders), who signed a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation to bring about a Senate vote.Klobuchar didn’t indicate she’d sign the letter, but said she supports “using reconciliation to pass the health reform bill with changes, such as getting rid of the Nebraska deal” — a reference to an addition to the bill to win conservative Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson’s vote.
Klobuchar continued, indicating her support for the public option:

I would want to make sure that the bill contains the Medicare care cost reform measures included in the existing bill.  I am also supportive of the President’s efforts to forge a bipartisan agreement.  We must reduce health care costs for the people of this country.
I support the House bill version of the public option which is based on negotiated rates. I do not support a public option based on Medicare rates because it exacerbates geographic disparities that already hurt Minnesota.

One could read Senator Klobuchar's statement to mean that she supports using reconciliation to put the public option back in the Health Care bill.  One could also argue that if her position was that we should use reconciliation to put the public option back in the Health Care bill, she should sign the letter and actually take a stand.  I am afraid that Senator Klobuchar does not like to be out in front with a liberal position.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal