Obama goes toe to toe with Republicans at health care summit

President Barack Obama's historic health care summit Thursday ended with Democrats realizing that if they are going to reform our nation's health care system they are going to have to do it alone - surprise, surprise!

In an impassioned last ditch effort plea to influence Republicans that health care is not a privilege but rather a right for all Americans, the nation's most powerful Democrats made the case for the most important issue not only facing the nation, but the party's political future.

During the live broadcast summit, it was clear early on that Republicans and Democrats had no real intention of trying to iron out a deal that would bring affordable health care to more than 40 million Americans currently living without it.While both sides conceded that they agreed on a majority of the measures in the Senate and House bills, neither would budge on a number of issues dividing the two parties on the the bill, including the Democratic bid to use the federal government to regulate health insurance, subsidize coverage for tens of millions of Americans and reshape the nation's health care system.

While both groups stuck to their talking points throughout the near eight hour summit, the vocabulary and depth of talking points on the Republican side made the group sound like a broken record as they continually attempted to convey their message to Democrats that Congress should just start over and pass measures "incrementally," instead of as one bill. Yes, you heard that correctly after a year of debate over heatlh care Congress should just start all over - makes a lot of sense especially considering both the House and Senate have already passed versions of a bill.

Democrats, however, argued that such an option would not work because the health care system is too big and everyone needed to be in one pool if the highly complicated system was going to work under the reforms. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who fought for health care reform up until the time of his death last year, wrote in his memoir, "True Compass," about how former President Jimmy Carter had wanted to pass health care in incremental steps, over time, instead of in one bill. In response to why this strategy would fail, Kennedy told Carter, "I don't think you can go to an elderly group and say, 'You're in...the second phase [of coverage], but if we pass the first [phase] and if hospitals keep their costs down and the economy doesn't go so much into a deficit, then you might be phased in."

Kennedy also made a point following the quote in which he said Carter had originally wanted a single payer, one bill system, but had decided to go against it because he felt, if successful, it would give Kennedy a platform to challenge him for the presidency. Kennedy explains though that Carter made a poor political calculation in this instance, because if they had passed comprehensive national health insurance together, Kennedy writes, it would have been a huge victory for Carter - making it harder for Kennedy to challenge him for the presidency, which he later did.

This leads us to a point that goes beyond a fundamental difference between how Republicans and Democrats view we should fix health care. And that point is that Republicans, no matter how much Democrats bend to their wishes, are not going to vote for health care reform, because they don't want to do anything that might help President Obama get reelected in 2012.

In the end, while the summit gives Democrats a specific instance too point to in terms of seeking bipartisan support for the bill, it sets the stage for Democrats to pursue a go-it-alone strategy that will include the House passing the Senate bill and the Senate making provisions to their bill through a budget procedure called reconciliation - which Republicans are already complaining about. Although, it should be noted that Republicans have enacted the procedure of reconciliation on a number of occasions in recent decades, most notably using it to pass the Bush tax cuts for the rich. But the Republicans challenge of the Democrats use of reconciliation should come as no surprise as the Republican motto has always been "do as I say, not as I do."

While the summit could be viewed as pure political theater, it does in fact signal that the end of the health care debate is in sight. While voters did not see lawmakers actually tackle a specific issue and come to an agreement, it did in many ways show that both parties have their own ideas, right or wrong, on how to ensure a better health care system for Americans. Either way, one thing is for sure, health care is going to be passed with or without Republican support, which should in the end be a huge win for Democrats and even a bigger win for the American people.