Obama Asks Republicans to Health-Care Overhaul Talks (Update4)
February 08, 2010, 8:06 PM EST(Adds White House response to Boehner letter in 15th paragraph.)
By Kate Andersen Brower and Kristin Jensen
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is pushing lawmakers to restart a stalled overhaul of the U.S. health-care system by inviting Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate to a half-day meeting on Feb. 25.
The discussion will allow “Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Obama said in an interview televised yesterday on CBS. He wants the discussion to be broadcast live, said a White House official who asked not to be named.
The talks offer Obama a chance to neutralize criticism that his Democratic Party has crafted the health legislation largely behind closed doors, while putting pressure on lawmakers to act. The meeting may not win over any Republicans, who have said they want to scrap the bill and start again.
“The chances of bipartisan agreement on health reform this year are close to zero,” said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “But the chances of health reform clearing its final hurdles with support only from Democrats are very much alive -- and increased by a public airing of party differences.”
Both chambers of Congress passed health-care bills last year with the support of just one Republican in the House. They were days away from finishing a House-Senate compromise set to pass the two chambers when the Democrats lost a special Senate election in Massachusetts, depriving them of the 60th seat they needed to overcome Republican delaying tactics.
‘Very Specific’
Asked about starting over on the health-care debate, Obama told CBS that he wants to look at “very specific” ideas that Republicans present.
In response, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said legislation should start from scratch.
“If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health-spending bill,” McConnell said in an e-mailed statement. “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.”
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio agreed, saying the “best way to start on real bipartisan reform would be to scrap those bills.”
Won’t ‘Walk Away’
During a speech at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Washington on Feb. 6, Obama told about 450 party leaders that he won’t “walk away” from his effort to overhaul the medical-care system.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats “remain hopeful that the Republican leadership will work in a bipartisan fashion on the great challenges the American people face.” The House and Senate will keep working to reconcile differences in their health bills, Pelosi, of California, said in a statement.
“We have promoted the pursuit of a bipartisan approach to health reform from Day 1,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement. “Senate Democrats will not relent on our commitment to protecting consumers from insurance company abuses, reducing health- care costs, saving Medicare and cutting the deficit.”
Without Republican support, one avenue for Democrats is to use a budget process known as reconciliation that would require only a simple majority in the Senate yet would result in a slimmed-down bill. Democrats control 59 of the 100 Senate seats.
‘Toe-to-Toe’
Boehner and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, in a letter to the White House, urged Obama to pledge not to use reconciliation to pass a health-care bill, saying it would “represent an important show of good faith to Republicans and the American people.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, in a response to the Republican letter, didn’t address using reconciliation and said Obama is “open to any good ideas” from Republicans “that stand up to objective scrutiny.”
The White House session may be Obama’s attempt to repeat the public back-and-forth he had with Republicans at a meeting in Baltimore on Jan. 29. Democrats have been trying to cast Republicans as obstructionists, and Obama challenged the party that day to end its blanket opposition to his proposals.
“Any time meetings like this occur and are announced with such fanfare, they are clearly intended for public consumption and not to get real work done,” said David Primo, a political science professor at New York’s University of Rochester. Obama may be betting that “going toe-to-toe with Republicans will work to his advantage in regaining support from Americans.”
Sebulius Speech
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today said Obama is looking to Republicans to come up with their own plan, “not just criticisms.” During a speech at a health-policy conference in Washington, Sebelius said the idea is to change the legislation with Republican input, not start over.
Top Republican objections have already been addressed, Sebelius said. For instance, the Senate dropped the idea of a new government-run insurance program, or public option.
“For a long time the discussion was ‘we don’t want to participate in anything that has a public option in it,’” Sebelius said. “Well, as far as I can determine, a public option is no longer part of the plan, and yet no one has come back to the table and said ‘we will now talk about how to move forward with a private market strategy.’ We’re hoping that will happen in February.”
New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, a Republican who almost joined Obama’s Cabinet last year, issued a statement praising the idea of bipartisan talks.
“I hope that these conversations are constructive and serious, not used as an arena for political theater,” Gregg said. “There is a significant bipartisan ground from which to reset the health-care debate.”
--With assistance from Nicholas Johnston, Julianna Goldman, Edwin Chen, Molly Peterson and Nicole Gaouette in Washington. Editors: Bob Drummond, Mark McQuillan.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kate Andersen Brower in Washington at kandersen7@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at jkirk12@bloomberg.net
