New Book Reveals GOP Never Wanted To Cooperate With Obama On Health Care

Greg Sargent has details of a new book by Richard Wolffe, Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House, that shows how Republicans didn’t want to cooperate with President Obama on health care, even if they got everything they wanted.

Wolffe reports that Obama got into a testy exchange with Senator Chuck Grassley, in which the President flatly asked Grassley if he could support health reform if the public option were dropped and he got everything he wanted. Grassley, in effect, said: Nope. And he told a top Obama adviser the same.

From the book, Obama asks why Grassley don’t support the bill even with all the concessions he wants:

“Why not?” asked an exasperated Obama.

“Because I’d have to have a number of Republicans,” said Grassley. “I’m not going to be the third of three Republicans. I’ve defined a bipartisan bill as broad-based support.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.