Hillarysworld

"The White House opened its last-ditch push for health reform Monday by releasing a $950 billion plan that signaled a new phase of hands-on presidential involvement.
But by day’s end, President Barack Obama was staring down all the same old problems.

Republicans called it a retread of the same bills Americans have panned, even though it included some GOP ideas. “Déjà vu all over again,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).

Democrats and labor unions didn’t rush to embrace it, either, with some disappointed by the absence of a public insurance option. Congressional Democratic aides also complained of being left in the dark by the White House, asking for a preview of the bill Friday, only to be denied by White House aides, according to multiple sources.

And Obama’s plan did nothing to answer the central question facing Democrats: how to get a bill through the Senate — now one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority — in one of the most toxic environments for incumbents in recent memory. Even with the first presidential plan on the table, there was no guarantee Democrats could pull off health reform this year.

After a year of keeping his distance from the legislative process, Obama plunged in ahead of Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit. By doing so, he hoped to set the agenda for the meeting — making his own bill the starting point for any discussions and trying to force Republicans to come to the table with a single plan.

“We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting,” said White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. “We took our best shot at bridging the differences. We think this makes some strong steps to improving the final product.”

The renewed presidential involvement was a relief for many congressional Democrats, who had agitated for a more direct approach from Obama. Democrats said that by presenting his first concrete blueprint in the yearlong debate, the president may be able to rebrand health care reform after months of messy legislative negotiations that contributed to a sharp drop in the bill’s popularity. Even though the president’s numbers have dipped, the public views him more favorably than it views Congress.

“Let’s just say it was welcomed,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said when asked whether Obama’s involvement was overdue.

But Republicans weren’t impressed with the offer, issuing uniformly negative statements. They called it more of the same drafted-behind-closed-doors policy that Americans dislike and continued to push for Democrats to start with a blank slate — a demand Obama has emphatically rejected.

“Americans want the administration to scrap its massive government scheme in favor of an incremental approach to health care reform,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “Unfortunately, the White House still seems unwilling to do the one thing Americans want most. It’s still clinging to a massive bill that Americans have overwhelmingly rejected, again and again, for months.

The White House kept Obama’s plan under wraps until Monday, and knowing this, party leaders in the House agreed last week not to weigh in immediately on the plan once it was unveiled, preferring instead to hear from their rank and file and field whatever concerns members had, leadership aides said. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement Monday morning to say the plan “contains positive elements from the House- and Senate-passed bills.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, “It could be the basis for a compromise. We’re not there yet. ... We’ll see what the Republicans have to offer.” "