Franken & Healthcare: A caller from Duluth to Stephanie Miller's program this morning said

[dflprincess]

she saw Franken at an event this weekend. He refused to say he was for a strong public option (much less singe payer) - and indicated he would be willing to settle for that goofy coop idea the Blue Dogs came up with. I know he's been a supporter of each state finding it's own solution, but that doesn't explain this position.

Granted, this is like 3rd hand information - and I hope the caller had it wrong, but we will have to start hammering Franken on this and make sure we add his State Fair booth to the list of "must see" sites at the fair.

We could have had two progressive senators and instead we wound up with Klobuchar & Franken :banghead: both of whom are great at paying lipservice to Wellstone's legacy, but will never really support the positions he held.

[Eric J in MN]

1. I predict that if there is a Health Care Reform bill voted...

...on by the full Senate this year, both Franken and Klobuchar vote Yes.

Whether is has a public option or not.

[dflprincess]

2. If there is not (at the very least) a strong public option it can hardly be called

health care reform.

It appears they are both more interested in health insurance reform - the "reform" being that we will be forced to buy insurance from the private companies (that works so well in Massachusetts). I suspect that they're both more concerned with how much money their campaigns can get from United Health Group than improving our access to care.

I had a fundraising call from Franken in the last couple weeks and told them I will not give him one more dime until he supports single payer - not that I can contribute enough to make an impression, much less buy a vote.