Republican leaders: Dems aren't reaching out to pass health reform bill

The Christian Science Monitor: Even after the GOP win in Massachusetts that cost Democrats their "filibuster-proof margin in the Senate," congressional Republican leaders say Democrats don't appear to want to work with them on a health care plan that could clear Congress, according to The Monitor Breakfast.  

On Thursday, "House Republican whip Eric Cantor said that the day after the election, 'there was absolutely no indication whatsoever that the Democratic majority had gotten the message from the election the other night. They were in closed-door meetings, negotiating with themselves.' Representative Cantor argued that Republicans 'have insisted that we could work together and do things in a bipartisan way." He continued, "I have not been called. I don't think [chief deputy whip Kevin McCarthy] has been called by anybody on the other side, nor has leader [John] Boehner'" (Cook, 1/21).  

New York Times' Prescriptions: House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama "were ignoring the message inherent in the Massachusetts election results, and that Democrats would pay a further price at the polls in November as a result." Obama and the Democratic leadership in Washington "can work with Republicans on common-sense policies to create jobs, or they can turn their backs on the American people. Thus far, it sounds like the president and the speaker plan to ignore what happened in Massachusetts, what happened in New Jersey, what happened in Virginia. They're still scheming and scrambling to find a way to pass their government takeover of health care," Boehner said (Herszenhorn, 1/21).

Politico: Boehner said Republicans won't back this version of the bill and he is encouraging them to vote against it. "'Listen, our goal is to stop this monstrosity,' he said. 'Scrap the bill, and start over. And start over in a bipartisan way.'

'This bill is dead,' he said. 'Maybe It's not quite as dead as I want it. But until it's dead. … Republicans are not going to work off this monstrosity. There's just not enough common ground'" (Hohmann, 1/21).