Obama's Meeting With Governors Leaves Some 'Disappointed'

Elisabeth Meinecke | February 28, 2011 8:00 AM

"Disappointed."

That's how Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, also the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, summed up his and other governors' discussion with President Obama Monday over health care. Perry, speaking at a press conference Monday with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, said he thought the bulk of the governors' concern, Democrat and Republican, was the cost and restrictions of Obama's health care law.

Guy Benson posted yesterday about the Obama announcement that he'd be willing to look closer at state alternatives to health care, but that mainly consists of implementing the alternative plans already provided for in the bill in 2014 rather than 2017.

Perry's impression of the event was similar.

"Pretty much all he did was reset the clock," Perry said of the president's statement.

Perry also announced the RGA is investing in a policy department to be headed up by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Haley Barbour of Mississippi. It will have at least a $1 million budget. Perry believes that over the next two years, the governors working along with Congress will add another check on the White House.

McDonnell also touched on the issue of ObamaCare legislation and the challenge in the courts -- Virginia has urged the president to join in their appeal to expedite the case and get it into the Supreme Court's arena sooner so that all the uncertainty surrounding the law can be resolved. McDonnell said the president seemed unwilling to do so.