What about Joe? Much work remains for Dems after Finance vote

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

All eyes are on the Senate Finance Committee this morning, where there have not yet been any surprises.

But Republicans are circulating snippets from an interview conducted by Don Imus of Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut who caucuses with Democrats. He's one of the 60 votes Democrats will need to pass a sweeping reform bill.

In a reminder that once the Finance Committee passes its bill today, there is still a very long road for health reform, Lieberman told Imus he doesn't support the Baucus bill and he thinks President Obama is trying to do too much.

“I've been saying for a couple of months now that I'm concerned, that I'm concerned that there's a danger that we're trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off,” Lieberman said, according to a transcript circulated by Republicans.

He went on: “And the two good things are to bend the cost of health care down by changing a lot of the ways health care is delivered. The second thing is to cover some of the people, millions of people, who are not covered with insurance. So, this puts us in the position where you say, on the one hand, what we're about to do in adopting health care reform will, will reduce the cost of health insurance from what it would otherwise be and the other hand you say, oh incidentally, we're going to raise your taxes or cut your Medicare to the tune of $900 billion or a trillion. And people are beginning to think that maybe they'd do better holding on to what they have now.”

Lieberman's statement underscore the perilous situation for Democrats who will take the Baucus bill and try to marry it with what the HELP Committee passed in July. They will have to attract Lieberman's vote on one end of the spectrum. And only the votes of more liberal senators who think the Baucus bill does not go far enough toward universal coverage. Only one Democrat, Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois, has said he won't vote for a bill that lacks a public option.

“The inclusion of a public option as a central component to any healthcare reform legislation is the only way to create meaningful competition with the insurance companies, and in turn, bring down costs and improve quality of care for the people of Illinois and all Americans,” said Burris on the Senate floor recently.

But other liberals, like Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia have pledged to do their best to force a public option and affordability votes on the Senate floor.

It's hard to square those pledges with changes to mollify Lieberman and other moderates, who opposes a public option.

Wiggle room on the public option could come in the form of wordplay. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose job it will be to marry the HELP and Baucus Finance Committee bills, has said there are different variations of a public option, even suggesting that the series of non-governmental co-ops envisioned by the Baucus bill could substitute for the public option.

But where it comes to affordability for people who currently have health insurance, there is less wiggle room. And there is also the undeniable fact that the Baucus bill does not insure every American.

“The bill before us still falls short of what people need and what people expect from us,” said Rockefeller during today's Finance Committee markup.

“It is not enough,” Rockefeller said. “Universal coverage has always been the goal”

He'll have to swallow his reservations and support the Baucus bill in the committee vote later today if he wants to make changes on the Senate floor in the future.

Kirk Late for Work on First Day

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

Massachusetts Sen.-designate Paul Kirk was supposed to meet with Sen. Teddy Kennedy's staffers at 11:15 this morning, but is running “at least an hour late.”

This has nothing to do with the Mass. GOP challenge to his appointment, we are told. It has to do with mechanical or weather issues with his plane, according to Kennedy staffers. Its just a coincidence, apparently, that Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Thomas Connelly has promised to rule by noon on a Republican challenge to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's emergency waiver of a 90 day waiting period before the special law allowing him to appoint Kirk took place.

Kirk is still scheduled to be sworn in on the Senate floor at 3:15 pm and will address Kennedy staffers in the old Kennedy office in the Russell office building before he is sworn in.

The sign outside the door there still reads “Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts” as it has since 1987, when Kennedy took control of the suite.

UPDATE: Sen.-designate Kirk finally arrived to Kennedy’s office at 12:40pm – within moments of the Massachusetts judge dismissing the Republican challenge to his appointment.