GOP Lacks Focus, Leaders on Health Care

While Democrats build up serious steam on health-care reform, the GOP has been left behind, with no firm message, no plan, little funding, and no clear leaders on the issue, writes Carrie Budoff Brown for Politico. Republicans fear the lag could make opposition to President Obama’s plans difficult. “If you wait to get started until there is a bill you don’t like, you are going to have a tough time,” says one health-care mogul, Rick Scott, who's put up $5 million to push a plan of his own.

While Scott has been talking up his free-market approach on the Hill, three House GOP groups and a team of 13 Republican physicians are reviewing the matter and Republicans say they'll have a "solid" plan soon. But the alliance of Democrats, labor unions, and business groups poses a serious challenge. “We are playing catch up. We are running against the wind,” says a GOP aide.
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