Kristol Calls GOP’s Preconditions On Health Care Meeting ‘Silly’

Kristol Calls GOP’s Preconditions On Health Care Meeting ‘Silly’

On Sunday, President Obama announced his intention to host a televised bipartisan meeting on health care reform “to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.” Yesterday, congressional GOP leaders responded with a list of preconditions for simply sitting down with the President and Democrats.

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Yesterday on Fox News, Bill Kristol — who has made no secret of his desire to kill health care reform — criticized Boehner and Cantor for setting preconditions and being disrespectful to Obama, adding that they should instead be more direct about their intention not to meet the President half way:


Watch it:

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Preconditions or not, it’s clear that both Kristol and the GOP want the same thing — to ultimately kill health care reform. Kristol is merely suggesting to his friends that they make it clearer. Indeed, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein noted last night on MSNBC that the reality is that the GOP’s position means that a bipartisan compromise will be next to impossible to achieve:

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Steve Benen notes that the summit “puts Republicans in an awkward spot.” “If they participate, they’ll very likely lose the policy debate. If they reject the invitation, they’ll look petty and small (even more so than usual).”