Well, the Republicans were quite predictably exposed as peddling a bunch of inaccurate talking points, not caring about the uninsured, not negotiating in good faith, and as generally not being serious at all about the crisis in exploding health costs. Now the job is to disseminate today’s summit as far and wide as possible. We just need enough momentum to give House Democrats the courage to pass the Senate bill and the sidecar reconciliation bill.
The road forward is a little blurry, but Obama will basically wait for the Republicans to make it clear that they still oppose any conceivable compromise and will filibuster any effort to pass health care through the Senate. Once they make that crystal clear, he’ll attempt to pass the bill through the reconciliation process.
The fight for the public option goes on (and I do think it would make it easier to pass in the House) but the other reforms need to be passed regardless.
If you watched the summit, I’d be interested to know what you took away from it.
