WH game playing on the healthcare reform ‘summit’ begins

John Steele Gordon reports on how the WH is playing partisan politics in advance of the so-called ‘bipartisan’ healthcare reform summit, which is to take place and be televised on Thursday (via Memeo):

If you’d like to see just how phony the administration’s latest ploy on health care is, go to the White House website and read this. Under the headline “Will the Republicans Post Their Health Plan… and When?” the White House bemoans the lack of a Republican plan while, not surprisingly, touting its own.

The President believes strongly that Thursday’s bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform will be most productive if both sides come to the table with a unified plan to start discussion – and if the public has the opportunity to inspect those proposals up close before the meeting happens.

That’s why yesterday the White House posted online the President’s proposal for bridging the differences between the Senate- and House-passed health insurance reform bills.

Fair enough. Except that a summary and the full text of the Republican proposed legislation has been posted for months right here.

[…]

The President’s tactic, it seems, is to demand that the Republicans put forth a plan, regardless of how often Republicans say, “Here it is!” Obama will just keep demanding that the Republicans put forth a plan. He is confident — obviously with very good reason — that the MSM, in full lapdog mode, will help all it can in convincing the public that the Republicans have no plan.

The cynicism is just stunning.

And he points to an article by the oh-so-helpful NYT, republished here, that proves just that.

Of course, it’s not like we didn’t see this coming from miles away, but that doesn’t make it less infuriating that the administration continues to lie about whether or not the GOP has a reform plan of its own to bring to the table. The real issue is, apparently, that the GOP has proposed a plan that is unacceptable to the administration (because it wouldn’t essentially give the govt control of our healthcare system), and therefore that means that there is “no GOP plan.” Or something like that.

I’ve been considering liveblogging some of the televised “debate” of the healthcare reform ‘summit’ but the more I think about it, the more my stomach churns at the thought. Not sure how long I’m going to be able to sit through all the deceptions, distortions, and lies coming from this President without losing my sanity. The SOTU was bad enough. Think I can make it through the next round of presidential theater?