Republicans are urging President Barack Obama to start over with a step by step approach to reducing health care costs.

Speaking for his party, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander told the president at the opening of a health care summit Thursday that he should scrap the health care bill Senate Democrats passed on Christmas Eve and start fresh from a clean sheet of paper.

Alexander said Republicans represent the views of a great number of Americans who oppose the Democratic approach. He said Republicans agree with many of the president's ideas for controlling health care costs and that both parties should work "step by step toward that goal."

Said Alexander: "This is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and we ought to start over."