Mitch McConnell asks a question about the health care summit.
“If they’re going to lay out the plan they want to pass four days in advance, then what are we doing there on Thursday?” McConnell asked.
McConnell is referring to the White House’s intention to offer a complete bill on Monday and post it on the internet. The president invited the Republicans to do the same. But rather than take health care reform seriously, the Republicans ask stupid rhetorical questions:
Q After meeting with you, John Boehner came out and told us, “The House can’t pass the health care bill it once passed; the Senate can’t pass the health care bill it once passed. Why would we have a conversation about legislation that can’t pass?” As a part of that, he said you and your White House and congressional Democrats should start over entirely from scratch on health care reform. How do you respond? Are you willing to do that?
To which Obama responds calmly:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, here’s how I responded to John in the meeting, and I’ve said this publicly before. There are some core goals that have to be met…Now, we have a package, as we work through the differences between the House and the Senate, and we’ll put it up on a Web site for all to see over a long period of time, that meets those criteria, meets those goals…So I’m going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals. What I will not do, what I don’t think makes sense and I don’t think the American people want to see, would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues; another six months or eight months or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and the Senate in which there’s a lot of posturing. Let’s get the relevant parties together; let’s put the best ideas on the table. My hope is that we can find enough overlap that we can say this is the right way to move forward, even if I don’t get every single thing that I want.
In other words, Obama is framing the argument in a way that failing to pass any health care reform simply isn’t an option. The bill has been marked up by five committees, passed by both chambers of Congress, and melded into a final compromise by the White House. If the Republicans want to obstruct, that’s their right, but Obama is passing it anyway. So, the reason McConnell and Boehner are showing up on Thursday is to get humiliated and exposed as the obstructionists they are. The only alternative is for the Republicans to do what the president suggested, which is to offer ideas to make the existing bill better or to provide a compelling alternative that can pass Congress. They won’t do that, so the trap is set.
The only question I have is over the math. Where are the fifty votes coming from?
