Planning for Failure

This report would suggest the White House is already planning for the failure of today's health care summit:

The White House on Thursday dismissed, but did not deny, a report that President Obama has a pared-down health care reform plan on reserve in case the kind of sweeping legislation his party has pursued for a year does not earn enough support at Thursday's bipartisan summit.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Fox News that "we are not focused" on any kind of backup plan going into the meeting, which will bring together House and Senate members from both parties to debate the health care overhaul that appeared to stop in its tracks last month after Republican Scott Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.

"The president is focused exclusively on what's happening at today's meeting," Gibbs told Fox News.

But Republicans, while agreeing to attend the meeting, have spent the last several weeks blasting it as a photo op for the president and a trap to make them look intransigent on the issue. The plan they have offered is vastly different from the president's plan and the Democratic bills that have passed through both chambers of Congress, and common ground appears elusive.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Obama's staff has prepared a blueprint for a smaller-scale plan. Sources said the backup would extend coverage to about 15 million people, or half the number the larger plan would cover.

According to the Journal, the reserve plan would cost about one quarter the amount of the 10-year, $950 billion plan Obama put on the table on Monday. It would expand Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, while allowing people to stay on their parents' health plans until age 26.

One source familiar with the discussions described the "Plan B" as a mere exercise.

Whether there's an actual Plan B or not various White House spokesmen for days have been saying that if the Republicans didn't agree to go along they'd force a bill through the Senate via reconciliation. Chris Dodd was quoted as saying something along the lines of "join us or get out of the way".

There are two other interesting developments concerning today's summit. The GOP wanted Dem. Rep. Bart Stupak, whose amendment banned the funding of abortions in the House bill, invited to the event (he wasn't) and various governors are upset that none of the nation's governors are involved in the discussions. The governors know they'll have to implement a great deal of Obamacare should it be passed and they'll get stuck with much higher costs.

There's little chance that anything concrete will come out of this meeting. Obama wants it so he can look presidential and so he can try and make the GOP look bad. The GOP agreed to participate in the hopes that they'll be able to point out the problems with the bills and won't get tagged for refusing to talk. It's all kabuki.