Otter on exchange: ‘If we stay at the table, I think we can make a difference’

Here’s what Gov. Butch Otter had to say this morning on the issue of a state-run health insurance exchange: “Let me just say from the outset on that, I see nothing wrong, or nothing liberal, or maybe even nothing conservative, about preserving all of our options,” he said, “and to back away from the table and just say ’you folks come in and set your own up’, I don’t think really that establishes for me an idea of sovereignty of the state of Idaho. I think it is a states’ rights issue, that we should be at the table.”

He added, “ I thought that with the wolves or the grizzly bears, I thought that with the caribou, I thought that with the sage hen and almost every other issue that has come up. If we stay at the table, I think we can make a difference. We did make a difference in most of those negotiations.”