Republicans to push own ideas on health care reform

BY SHAILAGH MURRAY

AND PERRY BACON JR.

The Washington Post

Republicans are preparing to use Thursday's White House health care summit to sell their own ideas for using the private marketplace to expand coverage and reduce costs, but they remain wary of fumbling away what they believe is an advantage on the issue heading into this year's critical midterm elections.

GOP leaders are acutely aware of the stakes involved in the extraordinary bipartisan gathering. An effective performance could give their party a vital image boost as November approaches. But if the party's delegation stumbles or oversteps, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could see the session provide new life to the stalled health care legislation they have been laboring over for a year.

The Republican summit strategy is twofold: to portray the Obama plan as radical and ruinously expensive, while reassuring a potential television audience of millions the GOP takes the health care crisis seriously and will address it head-on.

But Republicans are not prepared to match every Democratic provision with one of their own. "You will not see from us a 2,700-page comprehensive rewrite of one-sixth of our economy," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Their goal is to present voters with a clear choice between a Democratic approach that seeks to expand the government role in health care, and the Republican aim of finding solutions in the private marketplace. "There'll be no question as to where Republicans stand," said House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.). "It is with a much more common-sense, modest approach to health care reform."

Senior Republican aides said the GOP delegation would seek to portray the Obama health care bill as a further threat to the record deficit and target specifics of the Democratic proposal, including tax increases and Medicare cuts. Republicans also will be prepared to argue Congress should be focused on the more urgent need for job creation.

GOP aides said they anticipate that Obama will zero in on potential weaknesses in the Republican plan. For instance, the House Republican bill would not ban insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Nor it would it restrict how much insurance companies can raise their rates.

"We're fully aware of the president's skills," said one top GOP congressional aide. "But this is a debate we've been winning for the last eight months."