Making Sense of the Health Care Debate

Risks, and Perhaps Rewards, in Obama’s Health Summit
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
NYT

One big question about President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit, scheduled for Feb. 25, is whether American voters will really get a full and open competition of ideas and emerge with a clearer sense of whether they support or oppose the various proposals put forward by Republicans or Democrats.

Skeptics around Washington are already warning that the summit will be nothing more than Kabuki theater, allowing each side to grandstand on television while providing little in the way of substantive debate or additional understanding for the folks watching back home.

The first obstacle is that neither Democrats nor Republicans have united around specific, comprehensive legislative proposals.

Democrats, who enjoy substantial majorities in Congress, are slightly ahead of the Republicans in this regard. The House and Senate have each adopted comprehensive health care bills, and Congressional leaders were working to merge them when the Republican victory in a special Senate election in Massachusetts upended their efforts by making it clear that Democrats would not have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

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