Democrats Try Tougher Tone on Health Plan

WASHINGTON -- A top White House adviser said Tuesday he doubts two Senate Republicans at the center of health-care talks are negotiating seriously, as Democrats adopted a new, more confrontational tone accusing key Republicans of blocking change.

Senior adviser David Axelrod, responding to recent broadsides against Democratic health plans by Republican Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said Democrats would reach out to other Republicans to finish a deal this year. He added that President Barack Obama is considering laying out a more detailed vision of what he wants in a health-overhaul plan.

Democrats are shaping a strategy in response to the public pounding they took over the summer from some voters angry about proposed health-care changes. They are also responding to the troubles of the Senate Finance Committee, the only panel in Congress seeking a bipartisan bill.

Democrats hope to persuade the public that Republicans are to blame for the stalemate and shift opinion in favor of an overhaul. They want to build enough momentum to win support from a small number of moderate Republicans, in particular the two senators from Maine.

Enzi charged in a radio address Saturday that Democrats are "cutting hundreds of billions from the elderly" and planning "to limit or deny care based on age or disability of patients." In a fund-raising letter, Grassley exhorted supporters to "help stop 'Obama-Care.'" The senators are two of the three Senate Finance Committee Republicans on the "Gang of Six" health-care negotiators.

"If you're sitting at a table negotiating in good faith, then you probably don't send out mailers saying, 'Help me stop Obama-care.' That's just common sense," Axelrod said. The two senators' actions, he said, "suggested they don't want to participate" in bipartisan talks. "They're satisfied with the status quo. We are not," Axelrod said.

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