Bi-partisan healthcare summit a preordained failure?

An AP article on Feb 12 notes that "Democrats see a few scenarios that could emerge from the Feb. 25 event, planned as a half-day televised forum."

"One possibility is that Republicans make a poor showing at the summit, emboldening Democrats to strong-arm their sweeping health legislation through Congress with no GOP votes, which would require the use of controversial rules in the Senate. "

My view is that the very purpose of this bi-partisan summit is to give Democrats an excuse to ram-rod their despised healthcare legislation through Congress. They've preordained the outcome. They have no intention of compromising with Republicans. Their aim is to say, "Look, we tried to compromise with the Republicans. But their bill won't cover 30 million uninsured like ours. So we have no choice but to 'go nuclear' and use controversial rules to force the legislation through [the controversial rules are normally used for budget purposes only, not nation-altering legislation]."

 The article goes on to say "If White House officials have charted any one of these endgames, they're not saying." So the W.H. appears to have a preferred outcome to the summit! And you can bet the farm it ain't compromising with the Republicans.

Finally the article concludes

"Many Democrats believe the likeliest way forward is for the House to pass the Senate health care bill, and then for both chambers to pass a package of changes to fix elements House Democrats don't like."

This is of course the 'nuclear option.' Yet major nation-changing legislation should always win broad support through compromise to be legitimate in the eyes of all Americans. Even the flawed Civil Rights laws of the '60s went through this process. The democratic process deserves nothing less. But my sense is that the Democrats don't give a damn about process. They're idealogues. They talk about reforming healthcare to control costs, but "lowering the deficit" doesn't exactly get their hearts racing. Reducing the deficit to ease the burden of mostly white tax-paying Americans? Ho-hum. Bo-ring. Their real aim is to cover the 30 million uninsured in this country, many of whom are legal or illegal immigrants [the Democrats' bills do not include enforcement provisions to bar illegals]. And they'll do that even if it requires throwing Granny under the train: their bills call for cutting Medicare benefits for seniors to give free or subsidized care to señoritas.