Grassley: Odds of Passing Health Reform ‘Not Very Good’ Without Starting Anew

With health care reform on the back burner following Republican Scott Brown’s Senate win in Massachusetts last month, more and more Republicans are predicting that that’s where it will remain unless Democrats agree to scrap the existing bill in favor of something bipartisan. Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), senior Republican on the Finance Committee, told reporters today that the chances of returning to health reform “are not very good unless the White House is willing to start over.”

That’s the same message coming from House GOP leaders, who have threatened to boycott the coming White House health care summit unless the Democrats are willing to start anew.

The White House, for its part, has said it’s not willing to start over. The impasse, of course, is the reason that the health summit was called to begin with. That will provide a high-profile forum for each side to make its case. Grassley’s words today, though, only reinforce the growing sense that, on health care reform, the Democrats and Republicans have agreed to disagree.