Strongarm Tactics

Sure the GOP will come to Obama's Feb 25th health care summit...if they scrap the bills in Congress now and go with a 100% GOP plan. 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.

Gotta love that bipartisan cooperation:  100% Republican health care plan or nothing.  Eric Cantor fully expects that Obama will throw the last year away and simply go with the House GOP "plan" which will give insurance companies free reign to continue screwing over Americans and will do nothing to lower rates one penny, and won't do a damn thing to cover the 50 million folks who don't have health insurance.

Too bad.  The GOP refuses to allow any other plans to be passed.  The tyranny of the minority rolls on unabated.  They won't even talk to the President unless they get everything they want and then more.

So we'll waste another couple of weeks and nothing will get done, and meantime the GOP will continue to assault the President for not solving the problem.  Check.