Monday, February 15, 2010
The president has invited congressional Republicans to sit down and talk through health care at a big “bipartisan summit” on Feb. 25. Some think it’s a little late for such a conversation. After all, the Democrats have built their health care palace from the ground up, using only Democratic labor and Democratic input; they just can’t get it to pass inspection. So general contractor Obama invites Republicans to debate the blueprints, and just the blueprints. Oh, and he wants to debate them, not change them. Not really.
“The president doesn’t think we should start over,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer explained. Obama himself has said he’s committed to the existing bill(s) in the House and Senate. He just wants to hash out ideas with Republicans, in front of TV cameras, at a much-hyped summit because he thinks it would be good for America, or something. The Republicans can get whatever fixtures they want in the guest bathroom. Beyond that, they should just co-sign Obamacare and shut up.
The best you can say about the effort is that it fits into the White House’s universal answer to all of its problems: “We just need to explain to these confused Americans how we’ve been right about everything.” To that end, the White House wants to use Republicans as a skeptical prop-audience in one last infomercial for the ShamWow of ObamaCare.
The worst you can say is that it’s a cynical trap, designed to make the GOP look out of touch, ill-informed and ideological. Indeed, there’s a bipartisan consensus growing in Washington that the whole thing is a setup. Obama is going to say “nice doggie” to Republicans right up until the moment he smashes them with a rolled-up 2,000-page health care bill.
Even so, the GOP should go.
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