During the health care fight, Republicans understood perfectly well that the public considered the status quo totally unacceptable. That's why Republicans robotically insisted they wanted only to "start over" with a new plan, one they refused to define, that had all the good stuff and none of the bad.
Now Republicans are proposing a bill to restore the wildly unpopular status quo ante. Democrats are attacking:
In the opening days of the 112th Congress, members of the new Democratic minority have been unrelenting in their attacks on the way Republicans have begun their reign. ...
From Representative Nancy Pelosi, the party leader, on down, Democrats have heaped criticism on the new majority with some success. Republicans have been forced to answer questions about why they are not allowing amendments to the health care repeal legislation, how much it will cause the deficit to rise and what happened to their promise to pare spending by $100 billion. ...
Democrats are also accusing Republican proponents of repeal who accept federal health care insurance of benefiting from the same type of coverage they are denying their constituents.
Well, that's the way you do it. Republicans are finally coming out for a plan, and it's an incredibly unpopular plan.