White House: We'll Pass Health Care Without the GOP

Clearly the Obamacare summit planned for Thursday is a complete waste of time:

The game of chicken commenceth — right now.

In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation.

The assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders, ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring Republicans to try to block reform.

“The President expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on the call.

Pfeiffer said no decision had been made how to proceed, pending the outcome of the summit. But he added that Obama’s proposal is designed to have “maximum flexibility to ensure that we can get an up or down vote if the opposition decides to take the extraordinary step of filibustering health reform.”

Translation: If the GOP doesn’t cooperate with us in any meaningful sense, we’re moving forward on our own.

The Democrats know the clock is ticking on their ability to pass anything. Chances are when Congress comes back next year there will be far fewer Democrats in both chambers, and one or both could be controlled by Republicans. Consequently, if they're going to see their dream of socialized health care pass they have to do it now and they'll have to do it without GOP support. That means reconciliation in the Senate to avoid a filibuster, and that better mean war as far as the GOP is concerned.

I can't understand why Republicans are insisting on attending the summit this week when it's clear their ideas are not welcome and the event will be designed to make them look bad. I hope Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have some plans of their own for this event.