Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and RNC Chairman Michael Steele appeared back-to-back on MSNBC today to talk about the health care summit. When asked, neither of them could specify any concessions their side might make today.
Sebelius, when asked if the president would “try to grease the wheels for some kind of bipartisan deal,” listed things that are already in the proposal: crackdowns on fraud, prevention measures, high risk pools and new rules for insurers.
“Those are already in the measures and were proposed by Republicans in the House and the Senate. So he has actually put a lot on the table. He wants to know what else they want to talk about,” Sebelius said.
Neither could Steele name anything specific.
“I haven’t gotten the speicifics from the leadership as to what they’re going to the table with at this point, in terms of what they’re willing to give up,” he said.
“There are a number of areas where there’s already agreement between Democrats and Republicans,” he said, listing tort reform and health savings accounts. “They have put these items on the table.”
He then said if the White House had held a “dog and pony show” like today’s summit a year ago.
The hosts, Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie, pointed out that there was a bipartisan summit last March.
“Does that not count?” asked Todd.
“Well, apparently it didn’t because we don’t have health care and we don’t have the reform everybody’s been talking about. So, clearly, it’s something about what was done then that didn’t get the job done,” Steele said.
