No matter how the Republicans want to spin it, the majority of the country’s citizens want health care reform. Even 42% of the self identified Republicans in the country want this. So Republican lawmakers have a hard row to hoe if they want to satisfy their party members and come off looking good next to President Obama at the February 25th health care summit.
It is going to be interesting to see the way the Republican House and Senate leaders approach this summit and just how they try to spin it. They have to be thinking this is a trap and it is of their own making. After all, they kept saying they had better ideas but they never made them clear. They also kept calling on Obama to give the public the televised negotiations he had promised.
This may be one of those be careful what you wish for moments for the Republicans. But the Democratic legislators and Obama have a lot to show the public too. It is all going to be very interesting.
From the Washington Post:
Americans spread the blame when it comes to the lack of cooperation in Washington, and, in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, most want the two sides to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.
Nearly six in 10 in the new poll say the Republicans aren’t doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues; more than four in 10 see Obama as doing too little to get GOP support. Among independents, 56 percent see the Republicans in Congress as too unbending and 50 percent say so of the president; 28 percent of independents say both sides are doing too little to find agreement.
As party leaders tussle over the proposed bipartisan health care summit, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform. Democrats overwhelmingly support continued action on this front, as do 56 percent of independents and 42 percent of Republicans.
Read the rest here.
Whatever happens, this country needs health care reform and something has got to be done, sooner rather than later.
It is a tricky but necessary operation to get health care reform done.
