WASHINGTON — The time may be near when Democrats quit trying to please Republicans and attempt to pass a health care reform bill on their own, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said Thursday.
Udall and Colorado’s other senator, Michael Bennet, attended an hour-long meeting Thursday at the White House on health care reform with President Barack Obama and a dozen other Senate Democrats. Udall said afterward that there was optimism that a bipartisan pact is still possible.
However, he also told reporters in a conference call that there was sentiment “that at some point it’s time to act, and if Republicans in the Senate aren’t interested in finding a way forward and finding solutions, we can work as Democrats to come up with a comprehensive package.”
He said he was describing his own view of the situation, which was shared by other Democrats in the meeting, rather than the president’s views.
“At some point after you’ve extended your hand for a number of months and (it’s) not reciprocated, I think it is incumbent upon us as the majority party with the responsibility to govern and solve problems to act,” Udall said.
Bennet said he is a supporter of creating a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, an issue that has been a key stumbling block in reaching a compromise with Republican lawmakers. He said there were both supporters and opponents of a public option in the meeting, but that issue wasn’t the focus of discussion.
“What united that group is the animating concern that health care (reform) is critical because the status quo is not sustainable, and if we’re going to do it, we need to do it in a fiscally responsible way,” Bennet said.
