"My proposals were to basically expand the existing successful public health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid...
"When it came to Medicare I was very focused on a group - post 50, maybe more like post 55. People who have retired early, or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose their health insurance and they're too young to qualify for Medicare.
"What I was proposing was that they have an option to buy into Medicare early and again on the premise that that would be less expensive than the enormous cost. If you're 55 or 60 and you're without health insurance and you go in to try to buy it, because you're older ... you're rated as a risk so you pay a lot of money."
For Lieberman's part, he is calling people who claim he has flip-flopped on this issue cowards:
"Contrary to the claims of anonymous aides, Senator Lieberman told Reid on Friday that he had problems with the Medicare provision," Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittman said in a statement.
"This position was also told to negotiators earlier in the week. Consequently, Senator Lieberman's position came as no surprise to the Democratic leadership. Any contrary charge by aides who cowardly seek to hide under the cloak of anonymity is false and self-serving," he added.
This Lieberman statement was specifically in response to anonymous Senate aides who had claimed Lieberman told Harry Reid that he was supportive of a Medicare buy-in. Given that Lieberman told the public that he was supportive of the Medicare buy-in only three months ago, it is pretty easy to see who is lying on this one.
Meanwhile, Politico reports that the White House is telling Reid to cave to Lieberman. However, the White House is telling Greg Sargent that is not true.
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