House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. invited some National Journal and CongressDaily reporters to come have an on-the-record breakfast with him at his Capitol Hill office this morning.

Among the topics Cantor raised: the economy, his optimism that President Obama's popularity is waning, and his belief that House Republicans have done a good job offering policy alternatives to House Democrats' on key issues like health care.

On health care reform, Cantor said Republicans plan to capitalize on what he sees as "growing" public concern about the shape of congressional Democrats health care reform plans. In two weeks, House Republicans, via their House GOP Health Care Solutions Group, plan to hold a forum on the quality of health care and experiences of physicians, patients, and providers in other places like Canada and the United Kingdom.

"We are trying to take the discussion to the people," said Cantor, who lived in the U.K. for a year and personally experienced the country's health care system.

"Do we really think that the American people understand when we say, 'You don't want a system like the U.K. and Canada?,'" Cantor said.

The conservative think tank Americans for Prosperity has been raising just those questions over the past month with a series of million dollar ad buys, via its "Patients First" campaign. See my item yesterday.

Cantor was also critical of a decision by Wal-Mart last week to embrace an employer mandate in health care reform. "I understand that it was a business decision, but I think it was just wrong," he said.

Wal-Mart broke with business groups in Washington last week by joining with the Service Employees International Union to support a legal requirement that employers provide health benefits to their workers.

Cantor also suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may have a hard time "ramming through" a health care bill as she faces problems within her own caucus and as Obama's popularity has dropped in several states over the past month.

"People are starting to get buyer's remorse," he said.

Cantor does find a few areas of agreement with Democrats on health care. He recently met with Nancy-Anne DeParle, director of the White House Office on Health Reform, to see if they could find any common ground and he said that both agreed the reform plan should include the creation of "health connectors" or "plan finders" that would help individuals get access to more affordable health insurance plans.

But on the key issue of creating a publicly funded health insurance option to compete with private insurers, Cantor remains strongly opposed. The White House has said it supports such an option.

Cantor's comments come as the Democratic National Committee is ramping up its grassroots campaign to build public support for congressional Democrats' health care reform plans. Polls also show a strong majority of the public wants health care reform to pass this year.

Also see see my Congress Daily colleague Erin McPike's story in CongressDailyPM on the breakfast.

(photo by Liz Lynch)