‘Top Line’ — Obama Health Care Plan: ‘True to What [Democrats] Believe’

ABC News' Rick Klein reports: The White House is billing President Obama’s health care proposal as a starting point for negotiations in Thursday’s bipartisan summit, part of a challenge to Republicans to offer their ideas and help improve the shape of final legislation.
Republicans have met it coolly — and not all Democrats are sold about the wisdom of the president’s framework, which lacks the public option that has long been championed on the left.
We talked about it on ABC’s “Top Line” today with Karen Davenport, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, an influential progressive think-tank that’s been active in the year-long health care debate.
The proposal put forward today, Davenport said, is in keeping with what “the president campaigned on when he was running for president.” It’s not realistic to expect the president to simply start over, when so much work has already been done toward achieving health care reform, she said. “All of the ideas that have been developed in the last, you know, year and half since then … it’s along the same ideological or philosophical continuum. And I don’t think you can expect him to come out with something that’s counter to what he’s supported all along,” Davenport told us. “I expect that the Republicans are pretty good at political theater themselves, and they will be able to make their own points in the summit,” she said. “The White House is, you know, interested and open to their ideas and what they bring to the table, and is looking for how they can incorporate that. But … they’re trying to be true to what they believe, and how we need to be looking at really comprehensive reform. And I think some of the rhetoric that we’ve seen coming out from the Republicans isn’t necessarily about comprehensive reform.” We reminded Davenport that she — along with many liberal voices — last year deemed a public option that would compete with private insurers to be a “necessary” element of reform. “I think that there are multiple ways of making it happen; that was the way that we thought was best. It’s clearly the way the president thought was best, but you know, on balance — if you’re looking at all of the other pieces in the bill — it’s certainly worth moving forward without a public plan,” she said. And does the House have the votes? “That’s an excellent question and I’m sure Nancy Pelosi is working hard on it to find out,” she said. Watch the discussion with Karen Davenport HERE. We also chatted with Matt Lewis of Politics Daily on how Republicans should handle this week’s health care summit. Watch that portion of “Top Line” HERE.