By Tom Bevan,Real Clear Politics
In an exclusive interview with RealClearPolitics last week,South Dakota Senator John Thune said the Obama administration is "overreaching"and that Republicans in the Senate would stand together in opposition to a health care proposal that included either a public option or an individual mandate.
"I think there are 40 Republicans who are united on the point that we don’t want a government takeover of health care,"Thune said last Thursday in the thirty minute interview in his Senate office in the Russell Senate Office Building. "So if [Democrats] insist on this public plan option,and if they insist on an individual mandate and all these things they want in the bill,I think it’s going to be very hard to get any kind of Republican support. So they’re going to have to pass it with Democrats. Can they do it? Maybe they can."
Asked if he thought Majority Leader Reid would move health care legislation through the Senate using reconciliation,Thune responded,"I think they could,but if they do it’ll mean they want a partisan solution."