By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s prominent role in the debate over health care landed her a private meeting today with the president.
Lincoln, D-Ark., said Obama met with her in the Oval Office for about 30 minutes late this afternoon, at her request.
“I just felt like it was really my obligation to my constituents to exhaust all avenues to try and make sure that we affect the process that’s happening and what the outcome is going to be before the full Senate goes into this debate or proceeds to a bill,” Lincoln said in a conference call with Arkansas reporters.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced last week that the Senate health care bill would include a public health insurance option but would allow states to opt out of the program. Lincoln said she told the president she has concerns about the measure.
“My concern was a government option or a public plan that’s government-run and government-funded that puts the taxpayer and the treasury at risk,” Lincoln said. “We’ve got to begin to look at what our costs are, and I think the possibility of what that could be from a public plan is something that has to be very scrutinized, and I intend to do that. And I told him that.”
Lincoln said she did not tell Obama she definitely would vote one way or another, either to pass a bill or to end a Republican filibuster.
“I haven’t committed my vote to anybody,” she said.
For his part, Obama expressed “the idea that it’s important to get health reform done, that it is a critical issue,” Lincoln said.
Obama indicated he would like to see something accomplished now rather than later, but he was not adamant about meeting any certain timetable and agreed it was important to consider every issue, she said.
Lincoln, one of a handful of moderate Democrats in the Senate whose votes are considered crucial to passing a health care overhaul, is expected to face a tough re-election bid for a third term next year. Both liberals and conservatives have criticized her statements on health care.
Asked about those criticisms today, Lincoln said, “People on the left or the right, the two extremes, are both … unfortunately not working towards getting something done. They’re just drawing lines in the sand. I think it’s most important for us to work for something that’s going to work for the people of Arkansas.”
