As expected, there is no chorus of kumbaya coming out of the summit. The Republicans still insist upon starting over, Obama and the Democrats have made it clear that they will not do so. It was as frustrating to watch as anticipated, because the Republicans would not veer from their talking points of tort reform, selling plans across state lines, minimize regulation, and give us a blank sheet of paper.
Democrats brought great stories, extensive knowledge of policy, strong substantive policy answer. And that's where they left it. A few specific moments.
The Republican's bright light, Paul Ryan (he of kill Social Security and Medicare fame) was the one Republican who came with more policy than talking points, but he spent his allocated time concern trolling the Medicare Advantage cuts included in reform. Though, of course, that's a distinction that Ryan did not make--it was Medicare cuts, not the supplemental Medicare Advantage program. And he also lied about the rising spending in Medicaid, saying it meant that government spending in healthcare wasn't going to help us "bend the cost curve," completely ignoring the fact that Medicaid has increased precipitously in the past year because we're in a disastrous recession with 10% unemployment, meaning that the Medicaid rolls have increased substantially. He also argued that the Medicare Actuary argued that the Medicare reforms wouldn't bend the cost curve, either. He's wrong on that, too.
In an exchange with Marsha Blackburn, over the whole selling plans across state lines, Obama made a very strong case for the need for a national exchange to create a large enough purchasing pool to lower costs. He's right, the national exchange, both for purchasing power and for better regulatory reform, is essential. Hopefully this will mean that, despite the fact that the Senate's mulitple state-based plans is in his proposal, will back the House's effort in creating a national exchange.
Nancy Pelosi provided the strongest moment in pushback on Republicans, calling out Boehner for lying about abortion coverage in the bill and Camp for saying that Medicare would be cut. She also stressed the need for the public option to provide real competition, but stopped short of endorsing its inclusion in the final package.
And finally, Obama extended a deadline as long as six weeks for the Republicans to come back with some areas in which they might cooperate. I hope that he doesn't stand by that deadline, because if you give the Republicans six weeks, they'll take six decades. There's some real momentum for the process among Dems now, they need to keep pushing hard.
