Democrats spar over health care claim

WCAX.com
July 21, 2010

The gloves are off in the fight for the Democratic nomination for governor (Vermont). Former State Senator Matt Dunne is calling out Senator Peter Shumlin for what he says is a troubling misstatement.

Peter Shumlin first said it two weeks ago in an online questionnaire, then again this week in a mailing to voters: “I am the only candidate who sponsored a single-payer health care bill.” Dunne says that is simply not true.

“The facts are that I also sponsored a single-payer health care bill,” Dunne told reporters outside the Statehouse Wednesday.

He did. During the 1993-1994 legislative session when Dunne was serving as a State Representative he co-sponsored a bill that would have created a single-payer system. He wants a public retraction of Shumlin’s claim and is requesting that Shumlin send out another mailer with the correction.

“It is critically important that Peter Shumlin take action and take action quickly to correct the record, to be clear in public that he was factually wrong,” says Dunne.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=12850303

When two candidates for governor are engaged in a political skirmish as to which one is the bona fide single payer supporter, then we know that single payer is back on the table (at least in Vermont).