Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says Schumer's plan is a non-starter.
"I think he's putting some ingredients in there that are going to make it just as obnoxious to people in my party as they whole concept of a public option," said Sen. Grassley on ABC News' "Top Line."
"And you know why we don't want a public option. We think that it's going to control costs, it's going to be an unfair competitor. It's a back door to single payer like Canada has and that's a road to denial and delay of health care or rationing, whatever you want to call it. And middle class of American won't stand for that," he added.
At least Nancy Pelosi is standing up for the public option. She's taken a head-count and told HuffPo that she won't have the votes to pass a reform bill unless it includes a public option. She also said that Conrad's compromise (a system of co-ops) won't be enough. It's got to include a public option or no deal.
Meanwhile Grassley continues to be the mouthpiece for the party of NO when it comes to health care reform: "No public option, no employee mandate to either provide insurance or pay a penalty, and nothing that leads to rationing of health care." If you stick to Grassley's criteria here we won't have ANY changes to our current (and messed up) system.
Well I've got news for Grassley... we've already got rationing. With nearly 50 million Americans living without access to health care services, I defy him to show us how anything they could do in Congress could make things worse than they already are. |
