Senator Brown predicts Strong Public Option and Republican Support for Health Care

[andym]

Here's an unusual and quite interesting set of opinions/insights on the current situation (that contradicts a lot
of what we hear from pundits):
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aGjSSEgGj4Ns

Congress will pass a health-care overhaul that will differ from legislation proposed by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and some Republicans will back it, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown predicted. “It is going to be the plan much more similar to the three House bills” or a version approved by the Senate health committee , which include a government-run insurance program, Brown, a member of the health panel, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

“We are going to end up with a good bill with, I think, a strong public option,” said Brown. “Some more forward-looking Republicans in the end are going to come around and vote for this.” Brown said Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the Republican most likely to join Democrats on the legislation, “is surely up for grabs” and she will have “an impact on it and input into it.” Brown also said “there is a chance” that fellow Ohio Senator George Voinovich, a Republican who is retiring, will vote for the measure. “He’s had a long, proud history of public service in Ohio, and this would be a good cap to that,” Brown said. “He’s been an independent voice for a lot of years.”

............

“I would not have done it the way Senator Baucus did,” Brown said. “Senator Grassley and Senator Enzi had no real intention to support” a bill that Democrats would pass. In the health committee, Republicans offered amendments that “made the bill better” and gave it a “bipartisan flavor,” Brown said. Still, he added, “Republicans are on a pretty short leash from insurance companies” when it comes to tougher regulations and a public option.....

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He later goes on to say he supports caps on executive pay for bank executives.

[The Magistrate]

1. Senator Brown Is A Good Man, Sir

[andym]

2. No doubt, Sir

I'm very encouraged by his thoughts.

[bluestateguy]

3. Sherrod Brown is presidential material for 2016

nt

[Monk06]

4. Baby steps. Like Sen Kennedy said pass now amend later. Momentum is everything.

[Berry Cool]

5. I sure hope he's right.

And if Voinovich came around and voted for it too? OMG. I'd remember him in my prayers for that. And I don't say that about a whole lot of Republicans.

C'mon, George, leave a legacy.

[RichGirl]

6. So refreshing to hear something positive!!