Media Stakeout With Senator Max Baucus; Senator Christopher Dodd; Senator Charles Grassley; Senator Mike Enzi
Press Conference
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SEN. GRASSLEY (Joined in progress.): In that area and that is get the job done, and we all want to get the job done.
I believe that bipartisanship was spoke about a lot and I would be unhappy if it hadn't been. I think the president wants to work in a bipartisan way. I expressed to the president that bipartisanship is how Senator Baucus and I have done it for 10 years. We start with a blank sheet of paper and build a document, and that's the way we're doing it.
Bipartisanship is not a Democrat bill with five or six Republicans going along with it. We're restructuring 17 percent of the Gross National Product in anything we do in health care and that's something that's never been done by Congress before in one piece of legislation. It should be done thoughtfully. It should be done on a consensus basis, and bipartisanship is about the only way you're going to get a consensus basis in that direction, and I think the president can play a very important part in bipartisanship. He told us he wanted a bipartisan bill. If he wants a bipartisan bill, he can do a lot of things to help make it bipartisan and, I look forward to that sort of cooperation.
SEN. ENZI: Well, it was an opportunity for us to ask some questions of the president and some things that the president said that are involved in the work that we're trying to do in a bipartisan way. This is the biggest issue that Congress has ever had to deal with because it does affect 100 percent of the American people. And what we have to be real careful to do is not to start with the solution and look for the problem.
We've been looking in both of these committees at the problems and trying to figure out a solution that everybody can agree on that will solve that problem, and I think we've done a good job of listing the problems and now, hopefully, we can follow from the problem to the solution instead of picking up on some favorite solutions to try and make them the problem. And that will make problems and it will keep us from getting the bill done, but I am hopeful that we can -- we're on the right track. There's a lot of things that we agree on. We have those core things together, now we just have to work on some of the other issues and get them resolved. But I am confident that we can do that.
I'm a little worried about the timeline and I'm a little bit worried about how we pay for it because I think America realizes that we've kind of maxed out the credit cards and it's important that we have some ways to pay for this as well.
Q Senator Baucus?
Q What areas did the president express flexibility on that concern you and other Republicans the most?
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, I think that he expressed a lot of flexibility and I don't want to speak for the president, but you know what those big issues are out there. We discussed those big issues and the president expressed flexibility. He said, you know, when I say he said, I'm speaking generically about an atmosphere that went on in the meeting. We've got a problem; let's figure out how we can solve that problem.
Q Okay. One more question.
Q Senator Baucus, did you resolve --
(Audio break.)
Q -- health benefits and if not, where does that stand? And Senator Dodd, what are your thoughts on that mechanism and financing this? The White House says it's a priority and you, yourself, have said is a priority, but where does that stand?
SEN. BAUCUS: We are all flexible on all these points. We are, the president is. We are working -- it means we're working practically, pragmatically, to figure out how to make -- change those, work with them. These are -- and it's awful -- (inaudible) -- you can change the numbers. You can move a level up here; you could change something else down there. You could implement at a later date. They're all workable, so the whole discussion was how do we make these things work and approach it pragmatically and practically. That was one of the major positive developments. The whole meeting was very positive and that's one of the reasons.
Thank you.
Q So nothing is off the table.
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