Posted on 02/26/2010 12:30:33 PM PST by truthandlife
At a White House healthcare summit held Thursday, President Barack Obama urged Republican congressional leaders to consider working on several areas of common interest in the healthcare reform package, giving them a rough 6-week deadline before Democrats may consider using alternative measures to pass the plan.
Obama named health insurance reform, the purchase of health insurance across state lines and medical liability reform among the top three areas where agreement could possibly be reached.
Republicans argued they wanted to scrap all proposals on the table and rework a set of smaller steps to reform healthcare.
For Democrats, starting over is not an option they said, because of the dire situation many Americans face.
According to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), 14,000 Americans lose their healthcare daily, while six to eight Americans die per day because of no health insurance.
Democrats said healthcare reform is interconnected and cannot be tackled one step at a time. "We can't handle healthcare incrementally," Dodd said. "It has to be dealt with holistically. You can't get to quality and affordability, if you don't deal with coverage."
Much of the day's debate focused on coverage and whether or not it could be expanded without including more people in the insurance pool.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said, "If you don't bring more people in together, the only people who get a break are the people who are healthy. People who are sick pay more. Is that what we want in this country?"
Republicans at the summit backed a health reform plan proposed by House Minority Leader John Beohner of Ohio, which would expand healthcare to some 3 million uninsured Americans.
The Democrat House and Senate bills, passed last year, would extend coverage to 30 million.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the unspoken issue overriding the entire summit was the threat of Democrats using an alternative measure to pass a bill with a simple majority, rather than the 60 that would be normally required in the Senate.
The special mechanism, called "reconciliation," was never meant to be used for issues that involve 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, as healthcare does, McCain said.
President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would not guarantee that they would not use the method to pass a healthcare reform bill, when asked directly by several Republicans during the summit.
Obama said, "We cannot have another year-long debate about this."
"So the question that I'm going to ask myself and I ask of all of you is, is there enough serious effort that in a month's time or a few weeks' time or six weeks' time, we could actually resolve something," Obama said. "And if we can't, then I think we've got to go ahead and make some decisions and then that's what elections are for."
"We have honest disagreements about the vision for the country and we'll go ahead and test those out over the next several months till November," he said.
This reminds me of Napoleon declaring peace for all of Europe after most of his army froze to death in Russia.
I hope the GOP comes out and says something along the lines of “Six weeks or six years doesn’t matter, because it’s still a $hit sandwich. FOAD.”
Isn’t the shoe really on the other foot here? Obama is giving his party a six week reprieve from certain defeat. This should be entertaining if the Republicans can keep their nerve and I think they will.
Correction-—I believe he means..he needs 6 weeks to try to save his face from his arrogant healthcare meeting he had.
Horse’s head time?
Obama blinked.
Horse’s head time?
His deadlines are meaningless. What a joke he is. I’ll bet his kids hear, “I really mean it this time” more times than they can count.
Six weeks?! Maybe someone’s wife complained about the Christmas marathon - so now, they get Easter off?
Translation: We'd go for Reconciliation today if we really had the votes. So we're gonna be twisting arms, offering sweet deals, blackmailing and whatever else we can to get the votes within that time.
I’m confused, I thought they were going to “Rahm it through” on Monday?! Someone enlighten me please.
SIX WEEK OR I’M GOING TO HUFF AND PUFF AND BLOW YOUR NOSE!
hahahaha!
In other words, he doesn’t have the votes to ram it through next week.
LOL!
Best news I heard all week.
Translation: We'd go for Reconciliation today if we really had the votes. So we're gonna be twisting arms, offering sweet deals, blackmailing and whatever else we can to get the votes within that time.
Or else?
Pffft... ObamaCare is dead. Call me when youget all your Democrats on board and then we’ll talk. We ain’t joining your little walk off the political cliff.
The more I thinkabout this the more I’m inclined to believe that Democrats are nothing more than blow-hard bullies with NOTHING to back up their constant efforts at intimidation.
Buzz off Obama-Reid-Pelosi.
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