Collins Signal A Cover for Snowe?

AP reported this morning that a second Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe’s Maine colleague Susan Collins, has indicated that she’s open to voting for health care legislation this year.

The opening lines of Collins’ statement could be read that way:

“There simply is no question that our nation’s health care system requires substantial reform. The status quo of soaring health care costs, families struggling, millions uninsured, and health care provider shortages is unacceptable. Maine families and small businesses are paying ever higher premiums, increased deductibles and greater co-pays.

“Due, in large measure, to the efforts of Senator Olympia Snowe, who has worked tirelessly, the legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee represents a substantial improvement over the costly and flawed alternative approved by the Senate Health Committee as well as the House bills.

But a closer reading suggests that’s all there is:

The only thing remotely supportive of the proposal from Collins’ statement is that she shares the “goal of passing responsible health care reform” and hopes that after “many improvements” the bill will “achieve bipartisan support.” Anyone paying even cursory attention knows how likely that is to happen.

Meawhile, her statement runs through a whole litany of standard GOP objections to the reform proposal: It could be a small-business job killer, it threatens Medicare, and it lacks “medical liability reforms to reduce frivolous lawsuits.”