They're not so much ready for that bipartisan thing. Greg Sargent:
Eric Cantor’s office responds to Obama’s announcement of a bipartisan summit on health care with the most explicit and direct assertion I’ve seen yet that the only way Dems can win bipartisan cooperation is to fully embrace the GOP health care plan and nothing more:
After going it alone on health care reform for nearly a year, President Obama has decided he wants to bring Republicans into the conversation. Here’s the problem: unless the President and Speaker Pelosi are willing to scrap their government take over and hit the reset button, there’s not much to talk about.
Republicans believe the status quo is unacceptable, but so is any health reform package that spends money we don’t have or raises taxes on small businesses and working families in a recession. To that point, House Republicans have offered the only plan, that will lower health care costs, which is what the President said was the goal at the start of this debate.
I’m not sure if it could be made any more explicit than that.
It can't. Republican leadership has spoken. Eric Cantor has now joined Boehner and McConnell to say that they're not budging. And yet, in an interview with HuffPo's Sam Stein, HHS Secretary Sebelius says that "President Obama is willing to 'add various elements' to health care legislation suggested by Republican lawmakers during an upcoming bipartisan meeting on the topic." Various Republican elements have already been added to the bill, in the committee processes. Those concessions even included a ridiculous abstinence-only sex ed provision from Hatch. Did Hatch then vote for the Senate bill? No. Making further concessions to the Republicans, now that GOP leadership has issued the marching order, is not going to garner any more GOP votes.
That expectation, and any possible concessions to Republicans resulting from that expectation, needs to be taken right off the table.