The health care summit held at the Blair House yesterday between Democrats and Republicans was, in my mind, a huge waste of time. It was held from 10-5:30, so I’m not sure a lot of people were even home watching it. If they weren’t hit with 2 feet of snow and busy shoveling out their driveways all day, they were at work.
But they didn’t miss much. Obama wanted to focus on what people in the room agreed with, but most of the GOP representatives just read line after line of what they hated about the bill (essentially reciting campaign speeches). Obama had to politely chime in “uh, that’s not what I asked” or “uh, let’s hear what you agree with” or “uh, i’m gonna have to correct all the misstatements you just made.”
Of course, when Obama and McCain had a few words back and forth the next tweet on my feed was “OBAMA VS. MCCAIN – SMACKDOWN” as if they both got up and boxed 3 rounds in the center of the tables. Geez, it wasn’t that explosive. Obama just told McCain (after he brought up the election) that the campaign was over. But the media loved it, so nothing else mattered for the next hour.
Anyway, the GOP came in with 3 talking points. The first being that seniors are scared of this bill because it cuts Medicare. This was interesting, because Republican Tom Coburn started off by acknowledging the Medicare cuts were to get rid of WASTEFUL spending. Millions and millions of dollars in fraud, at the taxpayers expense, that they’re going to reign in. Those are the big, bad, scary Medicare cuts that the GOP has been decrying at town hall meetings for the last 7 months. But, you gotta love a talking point that’s not based in reality, because the GOP repeated this line throughout the rest of the day.
The second point was “let’s start over on the health care bill” since we didn’t have any input. Which the Dems kindly pointed out that, in fact, they held meetings much like they one they were currently at all last year where they adopted hundreds of GOP amendments to the bill.
And the third talking point (quite similar to the second one) came in the form of baby steps. The GOP favors scrapping the “too long to read” health care bill and focusing on tiny adjustments to our system. The Dems pointed out that everything was interconnected and you can’t make meaningful changes without incorporating all aspects of our health care system. Point in case – that’s what we’ve been doing since the 90’s and look at health care costs now!
But I say, take the GOP to task on this issue. If they want baby steps, give them baby steps. Force them to vote yes on a tort reform bill. Force them to vote yes on a bill eliminating pre-exisiting conditions. Force them to vote yes on 85% of the bill they do agree with. And then leave the last 15% to reconciliation if that remains the last course of action. But please, please make the Republicans put their votes where their mouths are. Cuz we’ve seen they love talking up and co-sponsoring ideas (deficit commission), but when the time comes to vote they can sprint for the hills faster than the Road Runner.
So, the Dems went in liking their bill with the GOP hating it and when both parties left the 7 1/2 hour meeting, that situation was unchanged. The Dems might actually adopt even more GOP ideas into their bill, but it won’t bring any GOP votes with it. The question remains, how do the Dems pass their bill? Well, the answer remains to be seen.
