Paul Krugman tries to figure out why "centrists" (actually, a bit to the right of where moderate Republicans used to be) are dithering over the triumphant health care reform legislation. Should progressives back the final form of the legislation, Krugman asks?
Yes. And they probably will.
The people who really have to make up their minds, then, are those in between, the self-proclaimed centrists.
The odd thing about this group is that while its members are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of passing health care reform, they’re having a hard time explaining exactly what their problem is. Or to be more precise and less polite, they have been attacking proposed legislation for doing things it doesn’t and for not doing things it does.
Thus, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut says, “I want to be able to vote for a health bill, but my top concern is the deficit.” That would be a serious objection to the proposals currently on the table if they would, in fact, increase the deficit. But they wouldn’t, at least according to the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that the House bill, in particular, would actually reduce the deficit by $100 billion over the next decade.
There's no accounting for Joe Lieberman except in personal terms. Joe is all about Joe these days, not about things like the good of the nation or the good of the Senate or the good of whatever party he belongs to his week. I think the whupping Joe took from Ned Lamont in the 2006 Democratic primary really threw him.
Ned Lamont is waiting in the wings to take him out again.
