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Obama’s actions speak louder than words
Feb 24 , 2010
President Obama has stated that he is open to a bipartisan health care reform plan, and earlier this month he announced that a televised health care reform summit would take place on February 25th, during which the details of this plan would begin to come together. At a White House press conference, he said “Let’s get the relevant parties together; let’s put the best ideas on the table.”
Unfortunately much skepticism exists about the sincerity of President Obama’s statements. While the President continues to claim that he is open to hearing Republican ideas, members of his own party have already said the bipartisan meeting is “no reason to abandon the idea of using reconciliation to pass health care reform this year.” They still want to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the reform bill without going to committee.
Meanwhile, the White House has begun hinting that President Obama may post his own version of a merged House-Senate reform bill on the Internet ahead of the health care summit. The official event invitation from Health and Human Services Director, Kathleen Sebelius and White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel reads “Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package.”
Many Republicans have already rejected the meeting saying it appears to be little more than political grandstanding. Minority Leader, John Boehner came out with a statement earlier this week saying:
While he says he wants by bipartisanship, President Obama’s actions seem to suggest otherwise.
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