“Not a Harry and Louise Moment, a Thelma and Louise Moment”

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One of the many amusing lines from President Obama’s wrap up of the health care summit at the White House. Here’s something of note: Obama pointed to Rep. Jim Cooper saying we can get health care done. This is something we noted here the other day and it belies easy stereotyping of fiscal conservatives as obstinate. Here are some highlights from the Obama Q & A:

Ted Kennedy looked great and talked about the importance of the issue. Mitch McConnell asked about the Conrad-Gregg proposal on reforming Social Security. The prez kicked it back to Congress saying that Medicare and Medicaid is the 800-pound gorilla. Henry Waxman talked about the importance of trade offs and willingness to negotiate. Rep. Joanne Emerson, the kind of moderate Republican Obama will need on many issues going forward, was very complimentary about the discussions as was Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the pivotal Senate Finance Committee.

Most interesting was Dan Danner of the National Federation of Independent Business. The group was a key opponent of the Clinton plan in 1994 and while he didn’t pledge to support Obama he wasn’t hostile either. For Obama’s part he told “bleeding hearts” they needed to take cost control into account just as fiscal conservatives needed to know they couldn’t control costs just by “throwing seniors off of Medicare.”

No shortage of critics on the left have whacked Obama for being too bipartisan but I don’t see how a conference like this can do anything but it’s hard to imagine how today’s session was anything less than helpful in promoting universal health reform. It’s not impossible to imagine meetings like these become a practice that’s continued by future presidents.

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