Politico is reporting, and a source familiar with the Senate Gang of Ten negotiations has confirmed for me, that the White House has told Reid to cut a deal with Lieberman.
The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and eliminate the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.
But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.
"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. "There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal."
Remember that Reid invited Lieberman to be a part of those Gang of Ten negotiations, and that Lieberman punked Reid by telling him that he was open to a Medicare buy-in. What's more, according to my source, Lieberman had staff in the Gang of 10 negotiations and they never raised objections on the part of their boss to the compromise.
White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer denies the report, but TPM has also received confirmation of it:
As Politico first reported, the White House is pressuring a reluctant Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to keep the prospects for health care reform legislation alive, a keyed in aide confirms....
The White House denies the charge. Spokesman Dan Pfeiffer tells TPMDC, "The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was less responsive. "The President is anxious to see progress and will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans and independents and everyone in between."
Let's hope that's the case, because it would be insane for anyone, including the big brains in the White House, to trust Lieberman now to agree to just cutting out Medicare buy-in (and the public option, because Joe wouldn't strike a deal with that). He's only going to ratchet up his demands. Yesterday he expanded it to include the CLASS Act. Tomorrow it's going to be Medicaid expansion. Lieberman's demands can't reasonably be met because he'll just keep moving the goalposts.
