Tackling Health Issues set on Feb. 25: Obama, Congressional Leaders

President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of leaders from the Senate and the House will meet February 25 for specific talks aimed at a compromise on health care legislation, said a White House official.

Those same leaders already are scheduled to go to the White House
on Tuesday for broader bipartisan talks on health, the jobs bill and other topics. Tuesday’s meeting will now set the table for the February 25 health talks, and it also will be the first fulfillment of the president’s promise in his State of the Union address to start monthly meetings with congressional Republicans.

“If Congress decides we’re not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, after all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not,” Obama said Thursday. “That’s how democracy works.”

Obama says it’s time for Republicans who have attacked his health care proposals from the sidelines to step before the cameras and present their own ideas.

In the first major move to revive his health care agenda after his party’s loss of a filibuster-proof Senate majority, Obama on Sunday invited GOP and Democratic leaders to discuss possible compromises in a televised gathering later this month.

It comes amid widespread complaints that Democrats’ efforts so far have been too partisan and secretive.

The Feb. 25 meeting’s prospects for success are far from clear. GOP leaders demanded Sunday that Democrats start from scratch, and White House aides said Obama had no plans to do so.

“If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his earlier efforts to reach out to Republicans “did not result in any serious follow through to work together in a bipartisan fashion.”

“If we can go step by step through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements,” Obama said, “then procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster than the process took last year.”

Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress have differed sharply on most major questions in the long-running health care debate. Only one Republican voted for the health care bill that the House approved in December, and no Republicans voted for a similar Senate version.

A White House statement Sunday said Obama repeatedly has made it clear “that he’s adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and the Senate.”