President Barack Obama has been busy in recent weeks waging the most important battle so far in his young presidency - reforming the U.S. health-care system. Republicans generally oppose the Obama plan as too costly and argue that it would lead to too much government involvement in health care. The battle is likely to drag on for months and will be waged at the grass-roots level as well as in the halls of Congress.
Each week they come by the busload from all across the country. Their demand is that Congress act now to expand health-care insurance to the estimated 47 million Americans who do not have it.
That was the reason Gordon Duvall came to Washington from his home in Denver, Colorado.
Duvall recently waged a successful battle against prostate cancer, but faced the prospect of losing his health insurance when he lost his job.
Duvall says he takes the issue of health care reform personally.
"Yes sir, it is, " said Gordon Duvall. "It is very personal. These organizing groups have given people, normal grass roots people, a voice. This is our government. It is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and the by the people piece needs to get back into it."
But opponents of Mr. Obama's health-care reform effort are just as determined to kill the president's plan.
They object to the cost of the proposal, which could go as high as $one-trillion over 10 years, and they want to stop what they see as an expanding role for government in administering health care.
Opponents have already spent millions of dollars on television ads aimed at whipping up grass-roots opposition to the Obama plan.
"What will happen to your family's health care? This government run-plan could crush all your other choices. It could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions," warned one of the TV ads.
New public opinion polls suggest Republicans are making some headway in raising doubts and questions about the president's reform effort.
Polls by the
New York Times and CBS News and the
Wall Street Journal and NBC News show growing public concern that efforts to cover uninsured Americans could reduce the quality of health care for those who already are covered by health insurance.
Matt Dallek is a political expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
"I think a lot of Americans probably are quite torn," said Matt Dallek. "A lot of people have health insurance, and yet they believe that the system has all kinds of problems and they would like to see major reform happen. And yet, they are concerned that the debate as it is playing out is not going to get costs under control and maybe it will limit their choices someway, so I think there is just a kind of unease."
Mindful that political momentum appears to be slipping, President Obama has stepped up his efforts to win support for health care reform in recent weeks with a series of campaign style events around the country.
"Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care," said President Obama. "I am tired of hearing that. If you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. These folks need to stop scaring everybody."
Democrats concede the political stakes on the health-care issue are very high, both for the president and for the Democratic majorities in Congress.