Perhaps the president and his strategists have an elaborate parliamentary scheme in mind, as some suggest, but I tend to think that they are just having a hard time seeing what everyone else seems to see — that their health-care plan isn’t going to gain sudden momentum just because of a televised summit. From ABC News:
“It could either be a choreographed professional wrestling match or it could be another ‘Kumbaya’ meeting, and I think both would be totally useless,” said Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of political economy at Princeton University. “It should be a frank exchange — thoughtful, polite, but the way adults should talk to each other.”
The president is hoping to thaw the ice on a health care overhaul bill that right now faces grim prospects on Capitol Hill. By bringing both Republicans and Democrats to the table, the White House hopes to resurrect the momentum by energizing wary Democrats and staunchly opposed Republicans. . . .
Some health care experts say bringing the debate out in the open when talks haven’t even really begun does not bode well for the future of health care overhaul.
“I don’t think this is the right way to get that kind of dialogue taking place,” said Stuart M. Butler, vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “All this will do is lead to political sound bites and not much else, in my opinion.”
The GOP leadership wants Obama to go back to the drawing board.
“Why are we going to talk about a bill that can’t pass?” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday, after a meeting with Obama on jobs. “It really is time to scrap the bill and start over.”
Liberal economist Dean Baker, who also considers it unlikely the bill will pass, thinks it may still be possible to “shame” moderates such as Sen. Olympia Snowe to come on board by trying “to put them in line” during the TV summit. Yeah, that’ll work.