White House to Present Its Own Reform Bill....

Steve Benen
Political Animal

On Tuesday, White House officials offered their first hint that President Obama may present his own health care reform bill in advance of the Feb. 25 bipartisan summit. Now, the president and his team are poised to do just that.

President Obama will put forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats ahead of a summit meeting with Republicans next week, senior administration officials and Congressional aides said Thursday.

Democratic officials said the president's proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

"There will be one proposal. It is the president's," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said, adding, "I think the idea is that it will take some of the best of the ideas [from the House and Senate bills] and put them into a framework moving forward."

(More here.)