This health care dog and pony show summit is nothing but a sham. The Democrats have come out and admitted it.
Politico: After a brief period of consultation following the White House health reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health-care plan, party strategists told POLITICO.
A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to “give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.”
Democrats plan to begin rhetorical, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said.
After the summit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to take the temperature of their caucuses.
“The point [of the summit] is to alter the political atmospherics, and it will take a day or two to sense if it succeeded,” the official said.
The plan is to ram the big bill through, not the smaller, pared down Plan B.
The Republicans should walk out of that room. What a joke.
Update: Memeorandum has picked up the story.
I turned on the summit. Watched about 5 minutes. The camera panned to Tom Harkin and Chris Dodd while a Gop’er spoke.
The sneer on Dodd’s face said it all.
This is a dog and pony show…..An attempt to SPIN the health care debate to the side of the Democrats…….A precursor for the potential Reconcilliation process.
Its a sham. Neither side is going to bend to the other side. That has been obvious for the last year and today is not going to change a single mind in the government.
Thats not the intent. The intent is to change the publics mind by trying to portray the Dems as moderates and the GOP as fringe.
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The part of the summit I disliked was when Eric Cantor was trying to make his point and the President wasn’t even listening to him and when he spoke to answer his question, he basically was condescending and was saying he didn’t need to show the 2,400 page bill and use it as a prop. Give me a break. Everyone does that.
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From what I’ve seen Obama looks petty and small. The Republicans appear to be winning. But I had to shut it off. Couldn’t take anymore Obama.
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Hat Tipped your post for front page on At The Water Cooler
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Keep in mind, up until today the Republicans had a strong case that their side of the debate was being ignored. It’s still not popular but make no mistake, the summit helped the Democrats. starvethemachine.net
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