It seems that the line in the sand has been drawn. Where will healthcare reform take us? Today it's getting dirty!...Posted on CNN.com this afternoon!
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The charged battle to overhaul health care intensified Monday as President Obama accused GOP critics of putting politics ahead of policy.
President Obama visits the Children's National Medical Center in Washington on Monday.
In turn, a top Republican said Obama was ramming through an ill-conceived plan that will undermine the country's economic future.
The latest rhetorical volleys were traded as Democrats struggled to regain much-needed political momentum on the high-priority issue before the August congressional recess.
In a visit to the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, the president seized on recent remarks by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina. In reference to the health care debate, DeMint said that "if we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
Obama said, "Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics." 
Watch as Obama pushes health care this week »
He said, "This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy. And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now."
Obama's critique came a few hours after Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steeleblasted the president for pushing "a risky multitrillion dollar experiment with our health care."
The plan "not only risks our economy, it risks every American's health, too," Steele argued during an appearance at the National Press Club.
"Under [the Democratic] plan, costs are going up, and you, the American people, are going to pay."
Steele also criticized congressional Democrats for attempting to pass a health care bill without reaching out to the GOP minority or "permitting any meaningful scrutiny."
Top administration officials, while defending their efforts with congressional Republicans, have conceded that more work is needed to ensure that whatever bill eventually gets passed is budget neutral.
Obama and other Democratic leaders are seeking an overhaul to ensure that health insurance is available to 46 million uninsured Americans while preventing costs to the government and individuals from climbing.
Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said an additional tax on wealthy Americans is "a legitimate way to go forward" in the debate over how to overhaul the ailing health system.
A final bill "will be paid for -- it will not add to the deficit," Sebelius said.
The House of Representatives and Senate are working on Democratic proposals that would create a government-funded public health insurance option intended to drive down costs of private coverage.
However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last week that the measures under consideration in both chambers would fail to pay for themselves, increasing the budget deficit.
Republican opponents were quick to seize on the CBO report as ammunition against Obama's push to have a bill from each chamber approved by the time Congress begins recess on August 7.
Democrats argued the CBO analysis failed to take into account the financial impact of cost-cutting measures under discussion as well as how stronger preventive care programs will reduce demand and costs.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, also appearing on "Meet the Press," said the government is overreaching by seeking to reform the whole system.
McConnell called for expanding the tax deduction on health care costs for employers to include individual taxpayers -- what the Republicans call equalized tax treatment -- and limiting medical malpractice lawsuits that he said drive up the cost of medical care.
However, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said the real purpose of Republican criticism is to slow momentum in hopes of eventually killing health care reform.
"The typical Washington bureaucratic game of 'if you don't have a better alternative, just delay in the hope that that kills something' is partly what is playing out here," Orszag said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
Orszag called for, among other things, creating an independent commission of doctors that would set reimbursement levels and other health care policy issues under congressional oversight, calling it "the single most important thing that's missing from the legislation at this point."
The White House has so far resisted a call from the powerful head of the Senate Finance Committee to create a new tax on medical benefits provided by employers.
Sebelius argued Sunday that such a tax could cause employers who provide coverage for 180 million Americans to change or drop their programs, which could "dismantle the private market."
The skirmishing over health care comes as a new national poll indicates Obama is slipping on the issue.
Forty-nine percent of people questioned in an ABC News/Washington Post survey released Monday approve of the way Obama is handling health care. That approval is down 4 percentage points from last month and 9 points from April. Forty-four percent disapprove, up 5 percentage points from June and 15 points from April.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll is the third national survey to suggest that the president's approval rating on overhauling health care is under 50 percent, joining a CBS News poll and Quinnipiac University survey.
At the same time, the new poll also indicates Obama still has a large advantage over Republicans on the issue. Fifty-four percent of those questioned say they trust Obama to do a better job handling health care than Republicans in Congress, with 34 percent putting more faith in the latter than the president.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Wednesday through Saturday, with 1,001 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage
