Senior House GOP aides tell National Review Online that congressional Republicans have not officially accepted the invitation to President Obama’s health-care summit. Speaking to members at a conference meeting this morning, House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said that he is still waiting on a response to a list of questions he and Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) sent to the White House two weeks ago. Nevertheless, Boehner and Cantor, with or without a response, are preparing a team to go and “intend to participate.” Boehner told his colleagues that the summit is a “charade” and that “the Democrats clearly want us to boycott so they can say Republicans walked away and they have no choice but to plow ahead.”
“We shouldn’t let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on Obamacare,” Boehner said. “We need to show up. We need to crash the party.”