By Jesse Liebman --
February 25, 2010
President Barack Obama will be holding a televised bipartisan summit Thursday on health care as he attempts to keep his push for reform alive.
The White House has invited 22 high-ranking lawmakers to the
meeting at Blair House, across the street from the White House. The session
will open with a statement from Obama, followed by comments from a Republican
selected by the GOP leadership and a Democrat chosen by that party's
leadership.
Obama will then moderate the conversation.
There remains some debate as to whether anything can seriously be accomplished. Sen. Chris Dodd, a key writer of the Senate health care bill, told reporters flatly Wednesday that if Republicans persist in their demands that Democrats scrap their health care proposals and start over, "then there's nothing to talk about."
But Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell argued that's exactly
what Republicans want.
"Unless they're willing to do that, I think it's nearly impossible to imagine a scenario under which we can reach agreement because we don't think we ought to pass a 2,700-page bill that seeks to restructure one-sixth of our economy," McConnell said.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-North
Dakota, admitted that Democrats did talk Wednesday morning about using
"reconciliation" to move health care legislation. He said Democrats
anticipate the issue will come up at Thursday's summit.
Reconciliation is a process, restricted to budget-related
bills, that bypasses the Senate rule on 60 votes being needed to end debate. By
using reconciliation, only a majority vote would be needed to move a bill
forward.
McConnell warned the political consequences would be severe
if Democrats moved forward without GOP support.
The meeting will be carried live by C-SPAN.
