President Barack Obama held a non-publicized meeting Wednesday with Sens. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., possibly signaling Obama might be quietly considering backing their alternate health-care-reform proposal, to gain some Republican support.
It came after a much anticipated health-care-reform bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., was unveiled earlier in the day and received a cool reception from Republicans and some Democrats.
Bennett did not say much about the meeting with Obama afterward, except that he told the president he is not supporting any Democratic bills currently before Congress.
"We had a good discussion. The president was very gracious when I made it clear to him that I could not support any bills currently before the Senate," Bennett said in a written statement.
Bennett's office added that the senator believes reform should focus on controlling costs and keeping the government out of health care, which is why he cannot support any of the bills that have been working through the Senate finance and health committees.
CNN broke the news about the meeting between Obama, Bennett and Wyden and noted it was not on the president's public schedule but was confirmed by White House officials.
CNN said White House officials characterized the meeting as part of Obama's ongoing effort to reach out to lawmakers in both parties, while it reported that Republicans said it may show Obama is looking for alternate proposals that could attract GOP support.
Bennett and Wyden have been pushing an alternative reform proposal of their own for years, which the Congressional Budget Office says would not cost any money in its first two years and would save money thereafter, a criteria that Obama says he seeks.
Their proposal does not include a "government option" of a federal-run insurance offering. Instead, it would create state-managed insurance exchanges through which consumers could select various plans, including their existing employer-sponsored plan.
Meanwhile, Sen. Orrin Hatch, who was long part of the bipartisan "group of seven" trying to write a compromise health-care-reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee, blasted the final product Baucus released Wednesday. At the same time, Hatch praised some reform ideas pushed to that committee by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
Hatch, R-Utah, dropped out of the "group of seven" in July, contending that Obama wasn't giving Baucus enough flexibility to truly craft a compromise bill.
"Now we have another health-care-reform proposal that simply leads to more spending and more taxes," Hatch said.
He called it "yet another example that shows the president cannot deliver on his promises to the American people of bipartisan health-care reform."
Hatch praised Herbert for calling on Congress to leave much of reform up to the states, which Herbert did in a conference call with 12 governors to the Finance Committee and in a letter to the Utah delegation.
Herbert's letter to Hatch said states have a "greater understanding of the specific needs of our citizens."
Hatch praised Herbert, saying he agreed that "state innovation and families should be the focus of our health-care-reform effort, not Washington. So, as Governor Herbert also points out, why would we try to take a one-size-fits-all approach when, eventually, the cost burden will be transferred to the states themselves?"
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