Lieberman gets everything wrong

Lieberman opposed Medicare buy-in for adults aged 55-64 -- something he'd supported only three months ago -- because the "patriarch of the public option" had suggested that it was "a dream; better than the public option."

Turned out the "patriarch," Yale professor Jacob S. Hacker, claims he said no such thing.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Lieberman included Mr. Hacker in the camp of people who favored the Medicare expansion: “Jacob Hacker, who’s a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said: ‘This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.’ ”

Mr. Hacker contradicted that characterization, saying he had made only two public statements about the Medicare expansion. And he said his praise was muted in both cases, in part because he said he did not want to suggest that the proposal was a sufficient substitute for the public plan that he has long championed.

“I am saddened that Senator Lieberman would attribute to me words I never have spoken (or thought) and even more saddened that he would suggest that he made such a fundamental decision on the basis of what I didn’t say.”

In one of those statements, an interview broadcast Dec. 9 on “News Hour” on PBS, Mr. Hacker called the Medicaid-expansion proposal “an enormous positive development.” He added: “It’s actually the original idea, if you will, for the public option, simply letting people get into the Medicare program that provides broad, secure coverage at an affordable price.”