Why The Heck Not! Dems, Reformers See Little Downside To Health Care Summit

The R's have everything to lose and nothing to gain by this. It's going to be a re-run of Obama's appearance at their summit meeting. They'll be exposed for having nothing to add.

My problem is that it seems like by announcing they're doing this on the 21st, they're saying nothing will be happening on health care reform before the 21st. Which isn't a big surprise, but seems to throw a damper on anything that happens until then.

How long do we have before Congress next recesses?

Here's what I'd do if I were a Republican obstructionist: say yes to discussions, while objecting to the date and the format and the timing, and claiming that a lot of preliminary steps would need to be completed before the meeting. (Which could be a first meeting of about 35.) And all of those preliminary steps should be transparent, with C-SPAN in the room and comment periods and lots of committees involved at every step.

Once in the actual meeting(s), toss up all sorts of issues that required exponentially more of the above, including some good old fashioned Swift Boat town meetings. And at every step, learn new things that required more time and effort. Bring Beck and Bachmann in to protest the whole thing meanwhile in some major "freedom" event. And by September it's not done and Obama has failed but at least we have an election.

That would be my strategy.

Are we still talking about this? Why? With the Senate still large and in charge? As Krugman points out, we are the United States of Poland now. Ich bin Polish. Sie sind Polish. Wir sind alle Polish.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/opinion/08krugman.html

Its only a matter of time before other countries begin "hacking off" pieces of our territory.

I don't think that Obama was "pummeled" during the Q and A. In fact I thought he tactfully and effectively countered their simple slogan arguments. Will they agree to debate? How can they refuse. This thing will be built up like Ali v. Foreman between now and the 25th.

Boehner just noticed his Pants on the ground!

You need a bill to discuss in order to make this work. What do you not like about this section or that, and why?

If you have *no* bill, you just have pandemonium, group-grope.

That's the Republicans answer today: it's okay to discuss, but first scrap the bill. Then they discuss anything, like renaming President's Day as Ronald Reagan Day, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, etc.

Well ,Yeah after you have botched HCR initially,lets just invite the GOP to a summit and repeat the endless embrace of bipartisanship,once again doing the samething over & over will give you different results everytime.

Folks,we all have seen the charade since June'09.The Gop ain't playin ball,evenmore we have seen the arguments for HCR & those against HCR.So why are they still playin around ....maybe the WH is going to call for a commission on HCR reform after the GOP still don't bellyup.

Markq8, see how excellent your idea was! The president jumped on it quickly! Of course, Republican leaders are now trying to wiggle out of this invitation by saying "let’s start all over on HCR," which is simply a stalling tactic to get nothing done on HCR. As I said last week, President Obama has adopted a new leadership style that will allow him to drop truth bombs on Republicans and Democrats to get things done in Washington.

A good leader makes things happen, and a good political leader uses good political strategies to make things happen. This is brilliant political strategizing that will make things happen! First, the president is announcing to the whole nation that he has not given up on HCR. Second, he forces the Republicans to react one way or another to his very reasonable proposal to engage in a televised negotiation session on HCR, which is something the majority of Americans (minus Republicans) want to see. Third, he forces the American public to see how irrational Republicans are on HCR. Fourth, he forces Congressional Democrats to redouble their efforts to pass HCR. Fifth, and this is the real objective of his new governing and leadership strategy, he gets an HCR bill passed! Love it!

The voter's rejected the Republican message in November 2008, but they demand that theirs becomes the basis for a new bill.

I cannot wait to watch the Democrats fold their cards, and cave.

But the round table will possibly degenerate into Republican talking points, that will then be echoed through the right wing noise machine, while the Democrats squabble among themselves.

Want to make any guesses as to which side comes out on top?

Yes, Obama can forcefully discuss issues, but with the selective editing by the right wing noise machine, the Republicans will be made to look like they were picked upon unfairly.

After all, it takes no great insight to know that the entire solution to health care is tort reform and letting the insurance companies do what they do best, which is to deny coverage, at least from the right wing viewpoint.

A real simple talking point would be if you don't want to buy coverage, even if tax subsidies were provided, then you don't get treatment without cash upfront. Because if you do get treated without paying upfront, it becomes a subsidy from someone else's pockets. And that is theft from me.

This summit will accomplish several things.

Mainly it's about making it possible for congressional Dems to proceed with the two-track strategy. It will reassure them that they won't be committing political suicide by voting for the package, by building (or rebuilding) a measure of public support. That will blunt any "How could they after Scott Brown won?" meme.

The summit will also reassure people that the Dems and Obama are serious about governing and pragamtic about solving problems, while showing that Republicans have nothing.

November still may not be pretty, but it won't be as bad as people have been fearing since the Mass. election. And the principle of (nearly) universal care will become part of the social safety net.

"One potential, but subsidiary, worry for House Democrats? That by bringing Republicans into the room, Obama could choose, or be forced, to triangulate between the progressive position (the House bill) and the GOP's, leaving their concerns about the Senate bill unaddressed."

One thing not mentioned in this article but I have read elsewhere is that Obama has committed to bring a merged bill to the table. I can only assume that this merged bill a reconciliation ready compromise agreed to between the House and Senate leadership, and Pelosi and Reid's comments support that theory. There may or may not ultimately be enough votes to pass it, but if Obama is as good as his word, for the first time ever in this process Obama will debate in favor of a particular bill with particular language, i.e., Obamacare.