San Diego , California ( CNN ) -- There was a lot to appreciate in yesterday 's bipartisan White House health care summit between President Obama and members of Congress . No really . This is the kind of thing that our leaders ought to do three or four times a year on a variety of issues -- from Social Security to education to immigration to job creation . Why not ? Put aside the sound bites and partisan barbs . Get beyond the dueling appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows . And bring your best ideas and most constructive suggestions to the table . Obama deserves credit for convening the meeting . His opening remarks were good , especially when he talked about the rising costs of health insurance premiums , the `` exploding costs of Medicare and Medicaid , '' and how he wanted to `` make sure that this discussion is actually a discussion and not just us trading talking points . '' I also appreciated his candid discussion of health scares years ago involving his own daughters and how he wondered `` What would have happened if I did n't have reliable health care ? '' And his acknowledgement that `` Everybody here understands the desperation that people feel when they 're sick . '' That is , assuming everything that happened yesterday at Blair House was real -- and not merely a theatrical setup for a Democratic-led effort next week to push through , using reconciliation , what Democrats on the Hill call `` the big bill . '' That 's Obama 's comprehensive $ 950 billion plan to radically reform the nation 's health care system -- the one opposed by every Republican in Congress and , according to polls , a majority of Americans . Reconciliation is a procedural maneuver that allows the Senate to pass the health care bill with 51 votes rather than the 60 votes required to end a filibuster . Yet , according to a recent Gallup poll , more than half of Americans -- 52 percent -- oppose Democrats resorting to reconciliation to pass a bill . And while Republicans are still holding out hope that Obama and congressional Democrats will go back to the drawing board and start with a blank piece of paper , that appears unlikely since Democrats seem to be `` all in '' on their piece of legislation . So what was the point of the summit ? It might well have been to create a foil . According to what an unnamed Democratic official told Politico.com , the purpose of the event was to give a face to gridlock . Democrats intend over the next few weeks to spin this narrative suggesting that they tried , really tried , to work with Republicans but the `` party of no '' was just too obstinate and too uncompromising . So Democrats had no choice but to rely on the perfectly legitimate process known as reconciliation . So the summit was a fraud ? A charade ? I hope not . Even in Washington , there has to be a limit to cynicism . And I 'd hope this would be it . I 'd hope that Obama and Democratic lawmakers would n't toy with the American people on an issue as important as this one . Talk about broken government . The public wants solutions to our health care problems -- however they 're defined -- and not partisan gimmicks that give `` a face to gridlock . '' Even many of those Americans who oppose the Democratic plan turn around to tell pollsters , in the next breath , that the current system has too much cost and not enough common sense . No one approves of the status quo . That 's at least something to agree on . And while Obama got a lot of things right in his remarks , he also made a big mistake when -- at the very outset of the discussion -- he defined as the baseline `` the House and the Senate legislation that 's already passed . '' That told Republicans that they were not getting their blank sheet of paper , and that the best they could hope for was to tweak but not substantially change the Democratic plans . It also did something else . It reminded the American people of who calls the shots in Washington . It 's the party in power . Democrats control all the levers of government , at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue . Remember that fact . Write it down . For President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership , the real obstacles to reform are n't Republicans -- who do n't have any power -- but fellow Democrats who are up for re-election and who are terrified of `` the big bill . '' They represent districts that either Obama lost to John McCain in 2008 or in which Obama barely squeaked out a victory . So they 're not going anywhere near this unpopular piece of legislation . Who can blame them ? Whatever happens on health care , Democrats alone deserve , depending on your view , either the credit or the blame . You see , the real face of gridlock is theirs . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarette , Jr .
Ruben Navarrette also lauds the health care summit , saying leaders need to hold more such events . Obama : Let 's hope it was real and not preparation for Democrats to pass unpopular health bill . Navarrette : Democrats control most of government in Washington . Some Republicans up for re - election are terrified of passing ` ` the big bill , '' he writes .