Conrad to Meet With Obama at White House
President Barack Obama will meet privately at the White House on Monday afternoon with Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) in a session that is likely to focus on health care reform.Conrad is a key moderate in the debate who has pushed a proposal for health care cooperatives that could supplant Obama’s preferred approach of creating a public insurance option to compete with private plans. Conrad, a member of the Finance Committee, is primed to play a major role as panel members and Senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee work to combine their bills into a product that will make its way to the floor.Obama also met privately at the White House last week with another key moderate in the debate, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.).