House GOP-ers: Start Over And We'll Come To The Table. White House: No. (updated)

House GOP-ers: Start Over And We'll Come To The Table. White House: No.

Rachel Slajda

Congressional Republicans have been calling for more bipartisanship for months, decrying closed-door Democrats-only meetings on health care reform. So President Obama invited GOP leaders to the White House Feb. 25 for a televised, bipartisan summit on reform.

In response, House Republicans leaders yesterday sent a letter to the White House listing a series of "questions" they want answered before they participate.

"Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people?" write the leaders, Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor.

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today responds that Obama is "open to including any good ideas that stand up to objective scrutiny. What he will not do, however, is walk away from reform and the millions of American families and small business counting on it."

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A senior GOP leadership aide involved in plotting party strategy added that Republicans were unlikely to pull out because it would make their own intransigence, rather than Obama’s efforts at a course correction, the story. “After a year of demonstrating a commitment to a partisan agenda it’s on the White House to prove otherwise,” this aide said. “We aren’t interested in doing their work for them.”