Healthcare Summit

So the media is on a frenzy talking about the healthcare summit on Friday. FOX is reporting how unfair it is to Republicans, the others are all reporting an Obama triumph for bi-partisanship.
I've decided that the best way to really get a feel for what is going with the national healthcare debate is to take healthcare OUT of the equation and look at it from a common-sense, easily related-to scenerio: a family vacation.
In our scenerio, we have:
Dad (Obama, congressional Demo's)
Mom (congressional Repub's)
Kids (americans)
I'll do my best to keep this straightforward:
Kids: we should go on vacation, we're tired of the broken down old park!
Dad: the kids deserve vacation, the old park stinks.
Mom: can we afford vacation, maybe we can do something different at the park, maybe pitch in and fix the broken equipment?
Kids: can we take all of our friends with us?
Dad: sure, take the whole neighborhood...they deserve it.
Mom: seriously, we can't afford it if it just OUR kids... for half the money, we could make the park really nice.
Kids: can we go on a 14-day cruise of the Mediterranean islands?
Dad: sure! that sounds great! The whole neighborhood will love it. maybe they'll even close the park.
Mom: HEY! where will we come up with the money? that is 10 times more debt than we have EVER gone into!
Dad: we'll cut out on our excursions to the park and borrow some of the kids' college money.
Mom: Umm...that won't save anything and will cost us money in the future.
Dad: well, we'll just cut the allowances for the kids as well.
Mom: still won't pay for 1/10 of it. we'll need to cut out grocery money too.
Kids: ummm...no allowance cutting, no grocery cutting...maybe the park isn't so bad.
Dad: you can't have the park anymore, you said you wanted a vacation. you're getting a vacation, whether you THINK you want it or not. trust me.
Kids: we don't want to give up our allowance so that the whole neighborhood gets the same vacation as us...that's not fair. Can't we just fix up the park...it IS the nicest park in town, even if does have some problems.
Dad: no. i know best. the park needs to be torn down so we can go on a cruise.
Mom: other people like the park, it seems to me that helping to fix the park is a good investment.
Dad: i don't care who likes the park. you shouldn't be so mean to the neighborhood kids who don't have parks.
Mom: most of the neighborhood kids could go to the park if they really wanted to. If we fixed it up, we could make it beneficial to everyone.
Dad: If you all hate it, fine! We'll discuss it when we get back.
Mom/Kids: once we do that, we won't have money to fix up the park, and the park will be gone.
Dad: Fine, we are going to have a family "vacation" summit. You will then tell me which parts of my vacation plan you want to change. maybe a 13-day cruise instead?
Mom: no one can afford ANY part of your vacation plan! We need to start over.
Dad: I'm telling the kids that you just aren't cooperating, and that you are a whiney, selfish person that just wants to say "no." You should be ashamed of yourself for hating the neighborhood kids!
Kids: you KNOW we can hear you, right Dad?
Dad: shut up. I'll tell you when to think.