Ezra Klein makes what I think is an unassailable argument that the health care reform bill in Congress right now already does incorporate many Republican ideas:
At this point, I don’t think it’s well understood how many of the GOP’s central health-care policy ideas have already been included as compromises in the health-care bill. But one good way is to look at the GOP’s “Solutions for America” homepage, which lays out its health-care plan in some detail. It has four planks. All of them — yes, you read that right — are in the Senate health-care bill.
Ezra then looks at each of those four planks and, in meticulous detail, shows how each one is already in the current bill. After demolishing the GOP lie that their ideas are not represented, Ezra concludes thusly (emphasis is mine):
On Sunday, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell responded to Barack Obama’s summit invitation by demanding Obama scrap the health-care reform bill entirely. This is the context for that demand. What they want isn’t a bill that incorporates their ideas. They’ve already got that. What they want is no bill at all. And that’s a hard position for the White House to compromise with.
The post is a must-read. You’ll find it here.
UPDATE: And here comes Eric Cantor to confirm that.
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