The Democrats never had a veto-proof majority to get a “public option.”, Liebermann was very opposed to that option. Besides, the Democrats never had that veto-proof majority for very long, they had a combined total of about 3 months, and it wasn’t even contiguous. When Obama first became President there were 57 Democrats and 2 independents. One of those independents campaigned for McCain, spoke at the GOP convention and was very opposed to the public option, I.e. Liebermann. They didn’t get to 58 Democrats until July of 2009 when the GOP’s lawsuits against Franken finally ended. What happened 6 weeks later? Kennedy died, leaving them short of the veto-proof majority. The Democrats just never had the votes for the public option. There was no “deal” made.
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