Let’s get ready to rumble! Or compromise. Whichever.
It’s on! Eric Cantor, on Fox News just now, made it official: Count Republicans in.
Cantor had written a letter with John Boehner yesterday to the White House, apparently laying down some preconditions for attending the White House’s health care summit. But on Fox, Cantor said Republicans would “absolutely” be showing up.
The obvious question is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. And the answer is… Who knows?
It could be a brilliant maneuver to publicly expose Republican obstructionism and unseriousness.
It could be political cover for replacing the already crappy Senate bill with an even more godawful “bipartisan compromise” bill which makes Republicans, PhRMA and insurance companies happy and everyone else sick.
It could even be a hopelessly naive and deluded attempt to find common ground with the people who have been saying “NO!” to health care reform for the past year.
Any one of those scenarios could be the reason for the health care summit, but there’s no way to tell which one actually is until the event unfolds. Obama’s history shows us a corporate doormat at best and a facilitator at worst, and he continues to appear disengaged from health care reform. But it also shows him talking tough about obstruction in the SOTU, and used a televised meeting with Republicans to make them look like fools (a practice run, perhaps?). All suggestive, but not conclusive.
If I had to bet, I’d put my money on one of the bad scenarios because they’re supported by a much larger body of work. But I don’t think it’s a slam-dunk, especially if Obama’s finally starting to realize how much political trouble he’s in. So I’m just going to hold off on cheering, screaming, or shaking my head about this summit until I have a concrete reason to.
