Healthcare Chicken: Boehner, Cantor Push Back On WH Media Strategy

Obama knows it's a joke to think a half day of talk will produce serious changes in a bill written behind close doors over the course of a year. Let the show down and the message war begin.

"If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate," Boehner and Cantor wrote.

Obama proposed the half-day summit on national television Sunday, but in their letter, the two GOP leaders offer their suspicion that the president is not serious about opening a bipartisan negotiation on health care.

" 'Bipartisanship' is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support," Boehner and Cantor wrote. "Bipartisan ends require bipartisan means."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded by saying that Obama has sought Republican input since early last year, and the president remains interested in hearing ideas that the GOP believe will advance the cause of health care reform.

But he appeared to give little ground on the idea that Obama might abandon the months of work that produced Democratic bills that passed the House and the Senate late last year.

Comments

[smitty]

As in, BHO "keeps on pluckin' that chicken?"

[Huey]

Unless they follow up and not meet if their "demands" aren't met, this is just a stunt.

I'm hoping that it isn't.

[mark gibbons]

i hope the republicans do not bow to the bowarina.

[Jim B]

If I were the House Republicans I would hammer on the insistence that Obama agree to scrap the current legislation and start over before they agreed to sit down for Obama's photo op.

Public opinion polls regularly show 70% who want Congress to either stop all together or start over on health care. There's no downside risk for Republicans to hold out for a complete do-over.

If I were Boehner and Cantor, I'd get in front of the cameras and repeat that demand every day, 3 times a day. Make it public. Make it loud. Make Obama/Pelosi/Reid defend this monstrosity every day between now and then. By February 25th, they'll be begging to just make it all go away.

[mark l.]

the wh is grasping at straws.

they had a slight pulse after the sotu, 1/27, and the gop meeting 1/29, and it is the only prayer they have.

they can't talk about terrorism without mentioning the panty bomber.
they can't talk about iran, because the are getting a stick in the eye from an admin, this week, they helped prop up.
they can't talk about the economy, becuase the dow is down and the us is 'still' shedding jobs and the dow fell below 10k.
they can't mention global warming, because they have their second blizzard on its way.
they can't talk about a second stimulus, because they can't talk about the first.
they can't talk about deficit reduction, when they increased the size of govt by 18% in one year.
they can't claim credit for the success of tarp, because they ran against it and heaped it on bush. (hx and rove, thank dems.)
they can't talk about 'teabaggers', because even they saw their numbers with independents from marist.

these are cornered rats, looking for something to bite, if to only gain purchase in escaping their corner.

forget 2012 on the mayan calender.
the dem majority won't make it out 2010.

[Lightwave]

Cantor and Boehner are making demands. They should be. They are the functional majority now and Obama knows it. His presidency is over. He is 100% irrevelant as a lame duck now. The House GOP health care bill is real and intelligent reform, not pork.

Obama should take the House GOP bill as offered, let the Republicans and Blue Dogs pass it in the House, let the Senate pass it, and sign it.

It's his only way out. If he doesn't, he will be given the same bill by the Republican Congress in 2011. And he will sign it then.

The writing is on the wall, Barry. And I don't think he's smart enough to take the deal now.

[Anon]

Mark,

I'm not sure the Dems are dead yet, because the GOP has time and time again proven to me that they have almost as much trouble learning from their failures as the Democrats do.

I'd say though that this half day health care summit is doomed to failure and was the typical reaction we've seen from the Obama WH...a poorly thought through tactic that isn't tied to any long term strategey.

If the Democrats took almost a year to come to a shakey agreement on HCR that started to fall apart almost as soon as the votes were counted, how could ANYONE, even the gullible public believe that a 4 hour 'summit' is going to deliver any results? It is so obviously a ploy to hurt the GOP that it boggles the mind that anyone in the WH would think its a good idea.

The Democrats have been blaming failure of HCR on the GOP for a year, but the public doesn't believe it, if they don't believe it now, why would a summit change anything? The Democrats have been bashing the GOP relentlessly and now, all of a sudden, they want a bipartisan solution? Give me a break.

[mark l.]

"because the GOP has time and time again proven to me that they have almost as much trouble learning from their failures as the Democrats do."

understandable. they aren't really a solution, so much as a prophylactic.

we are financial toast, regardless of party in power, as is much of the world.

just saw portugal is going under. it is a classic cascade. you can bail out a finanical company for only so long by staking your currency on it, but you can't bailout a country. when countries start flopping, their debt holders will subsequently collapse. the euro can stave off the final shakedown for only so long.

not a religious person, but we are in the end days(years).

[JLancaster]

Everytime the Republicans tried to make it easier to purchase health care in the past, then state Senator, Barack Hussien Obama voted against it. This is an attempt of his to ambush the GOP, just as he did the Supreme Court. Invite them, and then attack them. He's trying to make himself look good, by trying to make others look bad. It's a stunt.

[Anon]

Yeah, I saw that about Portugal teetering on the edge. So, what's that, three countries, First World countries that have effectively gone bankrupt in the last year--Greece, Iceland, Portugal, the UAE is semi-bankrupt and Spain is pretty close.

You would think that people would be screaming from the rooftops and there would be a second? third? Breton Woods in the making to try and fully revamp the global capital markets on some kind of sustainable path.

But, nope. Full denial, not only is our country in total denail about the financial catastrophe, but we're merrily spending all of our time trying to figure out how to BORROW MORE money?!

It would be hilarious black commedy if I didn't have to actually live through it.

[mark l.]

the whole point of their govts collapsing is that someone, other than themselves, owns potential worthless paper.
in the grand scheme, it all is pretty much worthless. the only thing that keeps it hanging on is relative existence.

"It would be hilarious black commedy..."

i was thinking that, myself.
some back water country has had the 'good' fortune of not being able to obtain credit. suddenly, by the fact that their currency is on the rise, while everything else is falling, they become the only game in town.

every investment banker and country is on its way to try and get a piece...

social commentary ensues.