Republicans come out swinging at health summit

Last Updated: 2010-02-25 11:39:09 -0400 (Reuters Health)

* Charges fly at healthcare summit

* Republicans focus on policy and costs

* Democrats tell stories of Americans' hardship

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican congressional leaders sat down at President Barack Obama's healthcare summit table on Thursday, but quickly made it clear they were not ready to agree to his proposals.

Despite Obama's appeal that the event focus on policy rather than degenerate into "political theater," even his fellow Democrats used the platform to score points, telling stories of the hardships individual Americans face.

The exchanges were civil, with Democrats and Republicans addressing each other by their first names, but there was little meeting of the minds.

At one point, Obama accused Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of being "factually inaccurate", and Alexander responded by saying the president was "wrong."

Here's how the two sides squared off as the day long event got under way:

* Alexander was chosen as the Republicans' first speaker and spelled out in no uncertain terms the opposition party's distaste for existing Democratic plans.

"Let's start over," he said, calling the Democratic-backed plans "the mother of all unfunded mandates."

* Republicans continued their no-holds-barred assault on talk that the Democrats were prepared to use a parliamentary procedure to push a plan through the Senate with no Republican votes, if need be.

If Democrats don't drop plans to pass the bill using the reconciliation procedure, the day will be a waste, Alexander said.

"The only thing bipartisan will be the opposition to the bill, and we'll be saying to the American people who have tried to tell us in every way they know how ... that they don't want this will, that they would like us to start over," he said.

* Obama made an emotional point with the story of how his mother had to fight with her insurance company during her battle with fatal cancer.

"I do remember the last six months of her life, insurance companies threatening that they would not reimburse her for her costs and her having to be on the phone in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies when what she should have been doing is spending time with her family. I do remember that," he said.

* Republicans repeatedly cited public opinion polls showing that more Americans oppose healthcare revamp bills passed by Democrats in the House and Senate than approve of them.