Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln: No to Public Option

Senator Blanche Lincoln is running for re-election next year as a Democrat. The Democrats have been campaigning for years on the promise of universal health care, or at least health care reform that would make medical insurance affordable for all Americans. The public option is a widely popular way to expand health care coverage. Given that, why did Senator Lincoln use her vote in the senate to kill the public option in the Senate’s health care reform legislation?

Look at where Lincoln is getting the money for her 2010 re-election campaign if you want to find the answer. She has raised over 4 million dollars for her campaign so far, and most of it comes from political action committees and funneled corporate money. A great deal of that money comes from organizations and individuals who profit from the health care status quo.

Of all U.S. Senators, Blanche Lincoln is the top recipient of donations from companies that manufacture and sell medical supplies. Lincoln also takes a great deal of money directly from political action groups set up by insurance companies. These are the sources of the money she’s using to run for re-election – so it makes sense, in a cynical kind of way, that these are the interests she is protecting by voting against Barack Obama’s public option.
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