Weiner offers amendment to eliminate Medicare

As the House Energy and Commerce Committee continues its mark-up of healthcare legislation today, at least one amendment is sure to raise some eyebrow: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has offered a measure that would eliminate Medicare.

While certainly not expecting his amendment to pass–let alone receive a single vote–Weiner is using the amendment to force a vote on a “government run” program that most lawmakers support.

Weiner wants the lawmakers who oppose including a so-called “public option” in healthcare reform to take a stand on whether government is capable of running a healthcare program.

“It’s put-up or shut-up time for the phonies who deride the so-called ‘public option,” Rep. Weiner said.

Weiner, who looks strikingly similar to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, seems to be taking a page out of Emanuel’s legislative playbook. When former Vice President Dick Cheney claimed his office was part of both the exeuctive and legislative branches, then-Rep. Emanuel offered a bill, albeit facetiously, to place the Vice President’s office squarely under the legislative branch.

–David Shalleck-Klein