An Invitation to Republicans: Post Your Bill on WhiteHouse.gov
Early this morning, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer reiterated the invitation for Republicans to post a health reform bill of their own online on the White House website for all Americans to see in advance of Thursday's bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform. As a jumping off point, the President has posted his plan on WhiteHouse.gov, so that everyone can examine the proposals, see what it means for them, and ask questions.
Order Generic Cialis Online without Prescription >Pfeiffer explained:
The President believes strongly that Thursday’s bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform will be most productive if both sides come to the table with a unified plan to start discussion – and if the public has the opportunity to inspect those proposals up close before the meeting happens...
President Obama has been clear that his proposal isn’t the final say on legislation, and that’s what Thursday’s meeting is all about. But after a year of historic national dialogue about reform, it’s time for both sides to be clear about what their plan is to lower costs, hold insurance companies accountable, make health insurance affordable for those without it, and reduce the deficit. A collection of piecemeal and sometimes conflicting ideas won’t do.
As we said today, we’ll be happy to post the Republican plan on our website once they indicate to us which one we should post. We hope they won’t pass up this opportunity to make their case to the American people.
ABC News has more:
As a "jumping-off point" for bipartisan health care reform discussions on Thursday, White House officials posted the Senate Democrats' health care reform legislation and some proposed fixes on Monday morning, an act that was depicted by Republicans as Exhibit A in their case against President Obama's sincerity.
On Tuesday morning the White House will challenge the Republicans to post one specific bill -- even going so far as to offer to post the GOP plan on the White House website. Republican lawmakers have offered a number of proposals in the House and Senate, but haven't yet identified one plan as the consensus plan representing the GOP.
A senior White House official tells ABC News that the plan is to bring Republicans within the "circle of accountability" so they have to take ownership of actual plans and not just opposition to what the Democrats are proposing.