The Health Summit is over, and the logical question to ask is - which side won?  I will let you answer that for yourself, based on your on views.  How about where does this bill go from here? President Obama made it clear at several points in the summit that he does not oppose the idea of using special budget rules, known as budget reconciliation, to get a bill through the Congress.

Republicans made clear that they are ready to raise hell if that happens - and we may well have that type of a gigantic political showdown in the weeks ahead.

Things will likely go that route because there was no Immaculate Conception in terms of a health reform deal at the summit.

That's not a knock on either party or praise for either one, it's just the facts of where things are right now.

The event itself was very interesting from an Inside-the-Beltway point of view, because there were a few times when lawmakers and the President had a serious discussion about certain issues, devoid for a few, fleeting seconds of partisan bickering.

It might have been better to have had done this about nine months ago, but that's water under the bridge, as they say.

Both sides used the summit to make their familiar political points, which sounded at times oddly jarring after someone had just been talking about ways to find a deal.

Did the summit work?  On the bottom line in terms of getting a deal?  Probably not.  But it is always good to get lawmakers together in a different type of forum.

President Obama said if there's no chance of a deal in coming weeks, then he made clear the next stop may be the use of budget reconciliation.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought about the summit.