North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad not only buys into the notion that health care reform should require a 60-vote supermajority, but he seems to forget that by the time the legislation is voted on, Al Franken will almost certainly be the Senate's 60th Democrat:
Even if you accept Conrad's contention that a minority of Senators should be allowed to block health care reform, his claim that the only way to pass it is with Republican support is almost certainly wrong.
That's a good thing because based on the reaction of Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Mike Pence to Conrad's voluntary co-op "compromise," Conrad's proposal won't be getting any GOP votes. They may hate it less, but they won't support it -- because they don't want to see health care reform become law.
If we've learned anything over the past few months, nobody -- Kent Conrad or President Obama -- is going to achieve some sort of a grand compromise with Republicans. It's time the Kent Conrad admit what he's really up to: doing his level best to scuttle the public option, and trying to block the most important component of health care reform.
Video transcript:
KING: Chairman Conrad, you have put forward a proposal skeptical of this government option -- number one, skeptical. Number two, you have done the math and don't think the votes are there for it in the United States Senate.
CONRAD: This really isn't, to me, a matter of right or wrong. This is a matter of, where are the votes in the United States Senate?
CONRAD: At the end of the day, nothing advances unless you get 60 votes in the United States Senate.
CONRAD: And that means you have got to attract some Republicans, as well as holding virtually all the Democrats together. And that, I don't believe, is possible with the pure public option. I don't think the votes are there.
we have got lots of cooperative models around the country that are very successful. And they're membership-owned and membership-controlled, not government-run. But they do provide a nonprofit competitive model for the for-profit insurance companies. That's -- that's the potential of this idea. It appeals to both sides.
KING: And, Senator Collins, if Senator Conrad can sell that idea, can President Obama get Republican votes here?
COLLINS: Well, it's an intriguing idea. I have long supported the idea of allowing small businesses to band together and bind co-ops to increase their bargaining power. In addition, I'm a co-sponsor of a bill with Senator Feingold that also would establish purchasing co-ops for big businesses, small businesses, farmers, a wide variety of people. So, I commend Senator Conrad for coming up with this idea. It's far preferable to the government-run plan that has been discussed by the administration. So, this is a possible compromise. I need to know more details. We need to better understand how it would work. But it's certainly better than a Washington-run plan.
PENCE: If they want government rationing to begin to be introduced into our health care economy in a wider way, the way it's been in Europe and in Canada, then the government-run option is the way, or some new iteration of it, this co-op business we're hearing of this morning.