Despite President Obama's emphasis on areas of agreement on issues to be effected through reform, Republican responses revealed few fundamental policy changes in their remarks.

From Senator Grassley: "Going forward, I don't know how Democratic congressional leaders make any progress toward a bipartisan bill when they're wedded to the plan the president put out this week, which is basically the same as the bills passed last year by the House and Senate."


From Senator McConnell: "We appreciate the opportunity to meet with the President today and discuss health care. And as he conceded, and a number of the majority conceded, there are plenty of good Republican ideas. The core problem is this, we don't think a 2,700 page bill that cuts a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, raises taxes by a half a trillion dollars and drives insurance premiums up is a good idea. What we think you ought to do is start over and go step by step and target the areas of possible agreement that we discussed in the meeting today."

From Representative Boehner, who published his AOL op-ed on his website: "Americans want Washington to scrap this job-killing government takeover of health care and start over with a step-by-step approach that will lower health care costs. That's not the 'Republican' view. It's the view of the American people. They know the bill that is set to be rammed through Congress will cause their health care premiums to go up and the quality of their health care to go down."

From Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA): "I will be listening to hear whether the president will abandon plans to empower Washington bureaucrats over patients to decide what constitutes acceptable coverage, drop the mandates to force individuals to buy more expensive insurance, and stop using budget gimmicks to hide the real price of this legislation, which will end up costing Americans trillions of dollars...If the President simply adds a couple of Republican solutions to a trillion dollar health care package that the American people don't support, it isn't bipartisanship - it's political cover."

Senator Mike Enzi, (R-WY), ranking minority member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, had a somewhat more positive reaction: "I'm glad we had the opportunity to meet with the President today and talk frankly about our views on health care reform. As I've been saying, I think it's important that we move forward in a bipartisan way, work on the problems that are driving up costs and keeping millions of Americans from finding affordable health insurance, piece by piece instead of trying to pass one huge bill. The glimmers of hope for common ground are further evidence that we should move away from the current partisan bills and discard the idea of using the partisan reconciliation process to reform our health care system...We should be talking about our ideas and how we can take those ideas, combine them to make our bill in each of these issue areas. Although it's clear that many differences still separate us, I was glad to hear some fairly encouraging responses from the President on issues like allowing individuals and small businesses to purchase insurance across state lines; strengthening Medicare for our seniors instead of cutting benefits, and exploring ways to reform medical malpractice laws. "

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