NOTE FROM JOHN: Funny, I thought President Obama saved Joe Lieberman's ass last December, and saved his seat in the Democratic caucus, because now Obama was going to own Lieberman. Instead, Lieberman is screwing Obama on Obama's number one issue of his entire presidency. Joe Lieberman knows how to get what he wants from President Obama. Threaten something dear to the President, and then see what he's willing to offer you to call off the dogs. A lesson for us all.
Via Think Progress, we learned that Joe Lieberman is opposed to the public health option:
On Obama’s domestic agenda, Lieberman announced his opposition to a public health insurance option. “I don’t favor a public option, and I don’t favor a public option because I think there’s plenty of competition in the private insurance market,” he argued. (He’s wrong.) Lieberman warned that political pressure in favor of the public option may thwart efforts at achieving health care reform. “Let’s get something done instead of having a debate,” he said.So, Joe thinks there is plenty of competition out there -- and this is all just a debating exercise. Lieberman has no idea how people in the real world live. How could he. From what I can garner, he's been living off taxpayer financed benefits for most of the past forty-two years.
From various sources, including his Senate website, it appears Lieberman graduated from college in 1964 and went straight to law school. He worked at a law firm til 1970, when he became a member of the Connecticut State Senate. I hear the health care benefits for elected officials in Connecticut are pretty good. He lost his Senate seat in 1980, but quickly returned to public life by winning the state's Attorney General race in 1982. He served as AG til 1988 when he became a U.S. Senator. He's been a Senator since then. Based on his latest financial disclosure report, Lieberman is already getting a pension from the state of Connecticut.
So, for almost his entire adult life, taxpayers have been paying for Joe Lieberman's health care benefits. He's not worried about co-pays and limits or not being able to afford coverage. Like so many of his colleagues, including Mary Landrieu, Lieberman has no real world perspective. He's spoiled -- at our expense. So, it's easy for Lieberman to side with the insurance companies.
Oh, it probably doesn't hurt that Lieberman's wife, Hadassah, worked for awhile at Hill and Knowlton doing work on as "'senior counselor' in the firm's 'health care and pharmaceuticals practice.'" I'm sure that gave her great insight into how health insurance companies were screwing over their customers.
Joe Lieberman is loathsome for many reasons. But, the fact that he's living on publicly paid benefits while trying to prevent the rest of us from having a public option is pretty disgusting.
