Grassley will tell Obama healthcare must be bipartisan

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said he would encourage President Obama to ensure that healthcare reform is a bipartisan process despite Democrats’ majority in the Senate when they meet for lunch today.

Obama, along with Grassley and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, will have lunch at the White House today to discuss healthcare reform and other issues.

“My message for the meeting on healthcare is that it needs to be bipartisan despite the margins by which Democrats control Congress,” Grassley said during a conference call with reporters. “The healthcare system is 16 percent of the economy. That makes it a massive undertaking to impact and change that much of the economy. So all the more reason it ought to be bipartisan.”

Grassley said that no agenda had specifically been set forth by the government, but Baucus has been leading an effort for healthcare reform through the Finance Committee, on which Grassley serves as ranking member.