GOP Threatens to Sit Out Obama Health Care Summit

The House’s Republican leaders are poo-pooing President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit next week, saying they won’t participate unless Democrats agree to scrap their current bill and start over. “If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate,” John Boehner and Eric Cantor wrote in an open letter to Rahm Emanuel.

“‘Bipartisanship’ is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support,” they said. The White House responded with a statement saying that it has sought Republican input since early last year. “The President looks forward to reviewing Republican proposals,” it said, but “he’s been very clear about his support for the House and Senate bills because of what they achieve for the American people.” (More health care reform stories.)