Republican Leadership Call for Health Care Bill to be Scrapped

ABC's Sunlen Miller reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader John Boehner emerged from a meeting with President Obama today on job creation – but had much to say about their views on the status of health care reform. Their meeting did not have much to do with health care reform, the leaders said, but it was their concerns about the president’s invitation for the February 25th health care summit that dominated the conversation with reporters afterward, each calling for the president to scrap the health care bill.

“We’re trying to understanding what it is we’re trying to accomplish with this health care meeting,” Boehner said referring the letter he and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor sent to the White House yesterday. “We’re hopeful that we’ll get some answers as we consider what to do about the February 25th meeting.”

Boehner said it is hard to have a bipartisan conversation over a bill that can’t even be passed.

“The president wants to have bipartisan conversations. It is going to be very difficult to have a bipartisan conversation with regard to a 2,700 page heath care bill that’s a Democrat majority in the House and a Democrat majority in the Senate can’t pass. So why are we going to talk about a bill that can’t pass? It really is time to scrap the bill and start over.”

McConnell agreed.

SOURCE: ABC News