Put Up or Shut Up: Obama Says He'll Post a Health Care Bill, GOP Should Post Theirs
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, February 16 2010
Credit: The White HouseIn his call for House and Senate leaders to gather their posses and bring them down to Blair House next Thursday to settle this health care reform matter once and for all, President Obama said that he'll be posting a copy of a health care reform package online ahead of time:
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. This legislation would put a stop to insurance company abuses, extend coverage to millions of Americans, get control of skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and reduce the deficit. It is the President’s hope that the Republican congressional leadership will also put forward their own comprehensive bill to achieve those goals and make it available online as well.
Jon Cohn suggests that in acceding to expectations of transparency in the health care reform process (the event will be "be broadcast live in its entirety," says the invitation letter, and we've already reported that C-SPAN is champing at the bit) Obama also happens to be putting pressure on House and Senate Democrats to come up with a compromise legislative package by next week, while at the same time putting Republicans in the position of having to bring some ideas to the web or have their complaints about their policy proposals being ignored ring hollow. There's a decent chance we would have seen more cameras involved in the health care reform process earlier on had transparency carried those sort of political pluses.
(One funny note from Obama's invitation. He's clearly hoping for this to be a wonk fest, rather than a complaint session. "It is also important," Obama told Senators and Representatives, "that each of you have one staff member specializing in health care policy in the meeting.")