Grassley: Obama Wants Bipartisan Healthcare Bill
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Health Care, Obama, Republicans
On a piece of legislation as big and historic as this, a spirit of bipartisanship would be welcome…but I think many worry it would be a Frankenstein of ideas that would be too clunky and too costly and ultimately wouldn’t solve the problem,
Regardless, here’s the report from WSJ:
Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said Wednesday that he left a lunch with President Barack Obama satisfied that the president wants bipartisan health care legislation.But just in case Democrats opt to act on their own, Grassley said he also feels obligated to put together a Republican alternative.
Grassley and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus discussed their work on health care at an hour-long lunch Wednesday with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. No staff was present.
Both Grassley and an aide to Baucus said that the president reiterated that he would like to see a bipartisan health care bill, something the two senators are at work on.
“I think that there’s an understanding that our working together is the best opportunity for bipartisanship,†Grassley told Radio Iowa afterwards.
Still, I think Democrats calling for reconciliation (only needing 51 votes to pass it) is a real possibility because once we get into the costs, I have serious doubts that Republicans will be willing to spend the money.
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 and is filed under Barack, Health Care, Obama, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
