Senator John Thune Is Quite A Tap Dancer

A self-described, "70s rocker and country music guy," the rather attractive U.S. Senator from South Dakota John Thune, a Republican, explained to Imus why Democrats are going to have a harder time than ever passing a health care plan.

"Joe Lieberman said this latest proposal they've put forth is a 'non-starter' with him, and he will vote against it, which makes their job of getting to 60 that much more difficult," Thune said, referring to the number of votes needed to pass a bill in the Senate, and to Lieberman's pivotal role as an Independent.

To get Lieberman on board, Democrats must drop any sort of public option, yet they risk losing other Senators if they do that. This week, Thune suspected, will be essential in how this whole thing shakes out. Yet public support for health care reform remains elusive.

"If you're the average American out there, you're saying, 'Okay, they're going to spend two-and-a-half trillion of my tax money; they're going to raise taxes and cut Medicare for my parents and grandparents; and at the end of the day, I'm going to be looking at higher premiums,'" said Thune. "That doesn't sound like a very good deal."

Lowering the age of Medicare enrollment from 55 to 65 years of age would be dangerous both because of Medicare's already insolvent nature, and because of the aforementioned cost increases to people with private insurance coverage.

"Medicare doesn't reimburse enough to hospitals and doctors for them to recover their costs," Thune explained. "So they shift costs over to everybody else who gets their insurance in the private marketplace."

Additionally, in sparsely populated areas like Thune's home state, more people on Medicare means less privately insured people to shift costs to, and thus the closing of hospitals and doctors offices altogether, creating an access problem.

Appearing on this program not long ago, Senator John McCain's "hair was on fire" about this very issue, according to Imus. McCain has also said, though not here, that if he had Thune's face, he'd have won the Presidency.

"I'm happy being the Senator from South Dakota," is what Thune replied to the "So, do you want to be President?" question posed by Imus. You do the math.

As for whether someone else, let's say her name is Sarah Palin, is suited to be President, Thune said she's "a very talented lady" and a "major player in the Republican Party," who has "certainly acquired a lot of experience that would equip her for the job."

"In other words," Imus hypothesized, "Not really."

-Julie Kanfer