President Obama on Tuesday said he is open to working with Republicans on a health care reform deal but said he is unwilling to start the legislative process over from scratch, instead arguing that on health care and much of his agenda the GOP minority is going to have to accept some ideas it does not like.
In an abbreviated, unannounced press conference — his first since July — Mr. Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room that he was willing to listen to Republican ideas and that he's already taken steps by proposing cooperation on nuclear energy and expanded drilling for oil and gas. But the president said bipartisanship will require Republicans to swallow some bitter pills.
On health care in particular, Mr. Obama said he will accept ideas at the upcoming half-day summit later this month but doesn't want to scrap the months of negotiations, hearings and deals that have already produced bills that passed the House and Senate late last year.
"What I will not do, what I don't think makes sense and I don't think the American people want to see, would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues, another six months' or eight months' or nine months' worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and the Senate in which there's a lot of posturing," he said.
Republicans pushed Mr. Obama not to try to revive the health care bills Democrats had been working on, saying those measures had been rejected by voters.
"It is in the interest of the minority in the Congress to reach out, and we have continued to. But what we want to say is this: We're not interested in a dog-and-pony show to trumpet failed bills that, in fact, the Democrats can't even pass right now. We're not interested in that because the American people aren't, either," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, said.
3 comments:
Just keep in mind the thought that John Murtha just received Government health care.
Furthermore the Canadian MP came here for heart treatment to escape the care Obama desires to force on us.
Obama Care = millions of dead Americans. Especially the old and handicapped. Hitler would be envious of Obama's plan.
The man just doesn't get it. The republicans voted in are listening to the majority of their constituents! That's why they are saying no to what he wants with healthcare. Telling them to "swallow the pill" is telling them really to ignore the majority in their respective states. The Republicans are (on this topic) not telling the people what's best for them. If the vast majority of Americans don't want it, I don't know why they won't start over with ideas from both sides. If they think it is that important to pass health care "reform" than maybe they should "swallow the pill" to get a partisan bill passed. Just because they side with us on one common sense issue (nuclear power and domestic drilling) doesn't mean s**t. We want partisanship on all issues.
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