White House sends invite for bipartisan health "summit": will propose its own reform "package"

[Bluebear]

I'm so confused, I have been told here that the Executive branch is not allowed to propose legislation, but here it is.

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Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Boehner:

We are writing to ask that you join President Obama for a bipartisan meeting at the Blair House on February 25 to discuss health reform legislation.

We have seen again in recent days that when it comes to health care, the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. The proof is right in front of us: just last week, a major insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, announced plans to increase premiums for many of its policyholders in California by as much as 39 percent on March 1.

As the President noted this week, if we don’t act on comprehensive health insurance reform, this enormous rate hike will be "just a preview of coming attractions. Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance; millions more will lose their coverage altogether; our deficits will continue to grow larger."

Now is the time to act on behalf of the millions of Americans and small businesses who are counting on meaningful health insurance reform. In the last year, there has been an extraordinary effort to craft effective legislation. There have been hundreds of hours of committee hearings and mark-ups in both the House of Representatives and Senate, with nearly all of those sessions televised on C-SPAN. The Senate spent over 160 hours on the Senate floor considering health insurance reform legislation and, for the first time in history, both the House of Representatives and Senate have approved comprehensive health reform legislation. This is the closest our Nation has been to resolving this issue in the nearly 100 years that it has been debated.

The Blair House meeting is the next step in this process. The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. and be broadcast live in its entirety. Although it is impossible to include every House Member or Senator who has played a pivotal role in the health care debate, the President is inviting the most senior House/Senate bipartisan leadership, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of the committees that oversee health insurance reform legislation in both chambers. A complete list of this group is attached. The President would like each of you to designate an additional four Members to attend the meeting and be available to participate. It is also important that each of you have one staff member specializing in health care policy in the meeting.

We will have a representative from the Office of Management and Budget to provide technical assistance, and hope that representatives from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation will also be able to attend.

In addition to the President, attending and participating on behalf of the Administration will be the Vice President, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the Office of Health Reform.

The President will offer opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting, followed by remarks from a Republican leader chosen by the Republican leadership and a Democratic leader chosen by the Democratic leadership. The President will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction.
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. As the President said earlier this week:
I’m looking forward to a constructive debate with plans that need to be measured against this test: Does it bring down costs for all Americans as well as for the Federal Government, which spends a huge amount on health care? Does it provide adequate protection against abuses by the insurance industry? Does it make coverage affordable and available to the tens of millions of working Americans who don't have it right now? And does it help us get on a path of fiscal sustainability?
These are priorities that we all share, and the President is looking forward to examining with you and your colleagues how we can best achieve the most effective reform possible.
Sincerely,

Rahm Emanuel
Assistant to the President



Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/12/a-bipartisan-meeting-health-reform-invites-are-out

[QC]

1. Doesn't this violate the separation of powers doctrine?

Quite a few people here have told me that it would, especially if the president tried to pressure Congress on DADT or marriage equality.

[Bluebear]

2. Presidents only sign legislation, they have no part in crafting it.

It would be illegal to do otherwise!

[QC]

3. I think one of the most difficult things about being president must be

knowing that one has no power whatsoever.

That would be a terrible feeling, just having to hang out at the White House, running out to the mailbox over and over to see if maybe the Congress has finally sent some legislation, then slumping back inside, dejected, like a little boy who can't go out and play because it's raining.

It's sad, really.

[Bluebear]

10. Charlie Brown on Valentine's Day comes to mind.

Pathetic!

[QC]

11. Exactly. n/t

[timeforpeace]

4. Any source for said illegality?

[Bluebear]

9. Yes, the myriad posts here telling us that Obama could do nothing about DADT

[timeforpeace]

12. Well my guess was that you were well aware that Presidents do submit legislation and have a

Congressional sponsor(s). It's the way it's done. Except, it seems, for this President.

[Bluebear]

13. Bingo all around.

:toast:

[polmaven]

14. The numerous posts about DADT

are with regards to the president not being able to simply DECLARE that it is no longer the law. He is certainly able to propose legislation in Congress, and have Congressional sponsorship of that legislation.

He cannot simply overturn legislation that has been enacted by Congress.

[Bluebear]

15. Except by executive order to stop the firings, which he could do with a stroke of the pen

[polmaven]

16. Yes, that is possible...

but that is as far as he can go on his own. I will note that Choi (is that the correct spelling?) is back on active duty and was not discharged. Apparently, something was done to bring that about. It got very little publicity, but it happened.

[babylonsister]

5. Weren't people pissed off because Obama didn't 'propose' anything?

Goody! Now we can be pissed off because he did! :crazy:

And 'propose' doesn't mean doing anything but suggesting afaik.

[Windy]

7. I don't believe he is proposing anything new. I believe he will explain, without media filter

what is in the bill and what can be done through reconciliation. He will also call the repubs on the carpet and show them and all watching why what they are "proposing" will not meet the goals of reform as set out in the letter...which by the way has been his criteria from the beginning... with the CBO right there. They will either put up or they will have to shut up. NO spin as it will be live. And that is spin from both the left (some members of the left) and the right!

Look people. Change to Obama is trying to force our government to WORK! it is not about who can be the better dictator!

[ProSense]

6. Republicans are already complaining

“(W)e were taken aback by a report in the Tuesday, February 9 edition of Politico stating that President Obama ‘hopes to walk into the Feb. 25 summit with an agreement in hand between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a final Democratic bill, so they can move ahead with a reform package after the sit-down.’”

more

[babylonsister]

8. The latest complaint is even sillier...

The GOP has now responded, saying the format leaves many “unanswered questions.” John Boehner spokesman Michael Steel emails:

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com /

“This leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Are they excluding governors, state legislators, CBO, and rank-and-file congressional Democrats who have opposed Obamacare and are the reason the president hasn’t had a bill to sign? Are Congressional Democrats still working behind closed doors with White House support on a ‘pre-negotiated package’ that can be rammed through Congress after the summit via legislative tricks? Or are they willing to start over with a blank sheet of paper? We need answers before we know if the White House is more interested in partisan theater than in facilitating a productive dialogue about solutions.”