Let’s see if Obama can work effectively on Healthcare Reform going forward.
Obama to Hold Bipartisan Summit on Health Care
By JEFF ZELENY
Published: February 7, 2010
WASHINGTON – President Obama said Sunday that he will convene a half-day, bipartisan health care summit at the White House on Feb. 25 to be broadcast on television, so Americans can see Democrats and Republicans try to break the deadlock on health care legislation.
The president made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show. The meeting would mark the first time in the long health care debate that leaders from both sides would be allowed to air their ideas publicly and see if they can find agreement.
Mr. Obama did not say what he was willing to give up in the negotiations or chart a specific legislative strategy for moving a bill through Congress.
“If we can go step by step through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, there’s no reason we can’t do this faster than it took last year,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on Sunday afternoon from the White House Library.
Mr. Obama made the move after recently conducting a televised brainstorming session with House Republicans that drew praise as a rare, candid exchange between a sitting president and the opposition party.
He added that he would not be supportive of starting the health care debate from the beginning, but rather would try to work from the existing proposals that passed the House and Senate to find agreement. It remained an open question whether this would be possible, given the hardened views of Democrats and Republicans alike.
But the bipartisan health care meeting on Feb. 25 is the latest example of how the White House is attempting to draw in the opposition party and highlight their ideas in the midterm election year, hoping that the Democratic proposals look better when compared to the Republican ideas.
“What I want to do is to look at Republican ideas that are out there,” Mr. Obama said. “How do you guys want to lower costs?”
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said he welcomed the bipartisan meeting on health care and called on the president to begin the dialogue “by shelving the current health spending bill.”
“The fact is Senate Republicans held hundreds of town halls and met with their constituents across the country last year on the need for health care reform, outlining ideas for the step-by-step approach that Americans have asked for,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement. “And we know there are a number of issues with bipartisan support that we can start with when the 2,700-page bill is put on the shelf.”
The president said he did not regret pursuing health care during the first year of his presidency, even though he intends to place a higher priority on job creation this year.
“It was the right thing to do then,” Mr. Obama. “It continues to be the right thing.”
The president spoke to CBS News’ Katie Couric in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl. Mr. Obama said he believed the Indianapolis Colts would defeat the New Orleans Saints, but acknowledged that the Saints were an emotional favorite.
“The Colts have to be favored,” Mr. Obama said.
Obama to Hold Bipartisan Summit on Health Care – NYTimes.com