So this is what a Massachussetts liberal looks like. How far we have come.
Mr. Stephen Lynch, a representative from South Boston, a previous ironworker known to be close to labor, is now a definite "no" on the most important piece of legislation for decades. Why?
According to his recent declarations to Eric Cleefeld at TPM, he's opposing Health Care Reform because:
"... it has stripped most of the serious reform from the House version of the bill and rewards insurance companies instead.
Furthermore, Mr. Lynch opposes using any procedural maneuvering to approve the bill without requiring members to actually vote on it, such as the so-called 'deem and pass' option. He would prefer a straight-forward up or down vote on a bill of this magnitude."
That's interesting, because just a few months ago, in September 2009, he was precisely against one of the most serious components of reform... the Public Option. From Politico:
At Sunday's Boston Common rally for President Obama’s health care reform, Lynch was booed during his speech by the very same activists he’ll need to win over in the upcoming special election. A longtime advocate of labor interests, Lynch wasn’t even invited to the state’s leading labor breakfast this weekend because of his skepticism towards the proposed public option component of health insurance legislation.
Strong feelings, no doubt. But surely his public position was not as definitively against the PO? It turns out that he was actually booed during a speech last September at a Health Care Rally in Boston exactly due to his opposition to the PO:
Then came Representative Lynch, who has been singularly unenthusiastic about public option. He started talking vaguely about "universal care". Suddenly, the crowd came to life. These very proper Bostonians, median age probably somewhere between 50 and 60, started chanting "public option" over and over again. Nobody there could doubt why all those people had come out on a beautiful Labor Day when we all would rather have been doing something else. Representative Lynch cut his speech short.
So what was Mr. Lynch fighting for?
As only a good Blue Dog would do, Mr. Lynch had made clear, already in August 2009, that the costs of HCR were more important than his ideology - well, at least back then. And even though both the state's congressional delegation and SEIU were fuming about this:
He, alone among the state’s congressional delegation, has not already endorsed the president’s health insurance plan. The SEIU went so far as to threaten to picket Congressman Lynch’s office if he did not see the light.
For his part, Lynch has said publicly he doesn’t necessarily oppose these health care initiatives, "but I want to know how it will be paid for."
It is now 6 months since this great man spoke eloquently for HCR without a Public Option and with strong cost controls. His strong positions have now been taken into account in a final bill which has left out many other provisions cherished by the left wing of his own party, while he has, in fact, imposed his conditions on everyone in his entire congressional delegation - a delegation from liberal Massachussetts, no less.
His vote? "Nay".