Obama Asks Republicans to Health-Care Overhaul Talks (Bloomberg)

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is pushing

lawmakers to restart a stalled overhaul of the U.S. health-care

system by inviting Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the

House and Senate to a half-day meeting on Feb. 25.

The discussion will allow “Republicans and Democrats to go

through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there

and move it forward,” Obama said in an interview televised

yesterday on CBS. He wants the discussion to be broadcast live,

said a White House official who asked not to be named.

The talks offer Obama a chance to neutralize criticism that

his Democratic Party has crafted the health legislation largely

behind closed doors, while putting pressure on lawmakers to act.

The meeting may not win over any Republicans, who have said they

want to scrap the bill and start again.

“The chances of bipartisan agreement on health reform this

year are close to zero,” said Thomas Mann, a congressional

scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “But the

chances of health reform clearing its final hurdles with support

only from Democrats are very much alive -- and increased by a

public airing of party differences.”

Both chambers of Congress passed health-care bills last

year with the support of just one Republican in the House. They

were days away from finishing a House-Senate compromise set to

pass the two chambers when the Democrats lost a special Senate

election in Massachusetts, depriving them of the 60th seat they

needed to overcome Republican delaying tactics.

‘Very Specific’

Asked about starting over on the health-care debate, Obama

told CBS that he wants to look at “very specific” ideas that

Republicans present.

In response, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of

Kentucky said legislation should start from scratch.

“If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White

House can start by shelving the current health-spending bill,”

McConnell said in an e-mailed statement. “There are a number of

issues with bipartisan support that we can start with when the

2,700-page bill is put on the shelf.”

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio agreed, saying

the “best way to start on real bipartisan reform would be to

scrap those bills.”

Won’t ‘Walk Away’

During a speech at the Democratic National Committee’s

winter meeting in Washington on Feb. 6, Obama told about 450

party leaders that he won’t “walk away” from his effort to

overhaul the medical-care system.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats “remain hopeful

that the Republican leadership will work in a bipartisan fashion

on the great challenges the American people face.” The House

and Senate will keep working to reconcile differences in their

health bills, Pelosi, of California, said in a statement.

“We have promoted the pursuit of a bipartisan approach to

health reform from Day 1,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of

Nevada said in a statement. “Senate Democrats will not relent

on our commitment to protecting consumers from insurance company

abuses, reducing health-care costs, saving Medicare and cutting

the deficit.”

Without Republican support, one avenue for Democrats is to

use a budget process known as reconciliation that would require

only a simple majority in the Senate yet would result in a

slimmed-down bill. Democrats control 59 of the 100 Senate seats.

‘Toe-to-Toe’

The White House session may be Obama’s attempt to repeat

the public back-and-forth he had with Republicans at a meeting

in Baltimore on Jan. 29. Democrats have been trying to cast

Republicans as obstructionists, and Obama challenged the party

that day to end its blanket opposition to his proposals.

“Anytime meetings like this occur and are announced with

such fanfare, they are clearly intended for public consumption

and not to get real work done,” said David Primo, a political

science professor at New York’s University of Rochester. Obama

may be betting that “going toe-to-toe with Republicans will

work to his advantage in regaining support from Americans.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today

said Obama is looking to Republicans to come up with their own

plan, “not just criticisms.” During a speech at a health-

policy conference in Washington, Sebelius said the idea is to

change the legislation with Republican input, not start over.

Top Republican objections have already been addressed,

Sebelius said. For instance, the Senate dropped the idea of a

new government-run insurance program, or public option.

Public Option Gone

“For a long time the discussion was ‘we don’t want to

participate in anything that has a public option in it,’”

Sebelius said. “Well, as far as I can determine, a public

option is no longer part of the plan, and yet no one has come

back to the table and said ‘we will now talk about how to move

forward with a private market strategy.’ We’re hoping that will

happen in February.”

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, a Republican who almost

joined Obama’s Cabinet last year, issued a statement praising

the idea of bipartisan talks.

“I hope that these conversations are constructive and

serious, not used as an arena for political theater,” Gregg

said. “There is a significant bipartisan ground from which to

reset the health-care debate.”

To contact the reporter on this story:

Kate Andersen Brower in Washington at

kandersen7@bloomberg.net ;

Kristin Jensen in Washington at

kjensen@bloomberg.net

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