The Hill News

The Republican "Young Guns" crew said they'll need GOP control of the White House in order to follow through on their pledge to repeal healthcare reform.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said that they need President Obama out of the White House if they are to be successful in repealing healthcare reform.

"Obviously, to repeal it and fully replace it completely, you need a new president," Ryan said in an interview with the conservative website Newsmax. "So  what's going to happen after this election, provided we get the majority and we can start setting the stage for this is, we're going to have to ask Americans to make a choice in this country."

Ryan and Cantor, along with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the chief deputy whip for the House GOP, make up the self-described "Young Guns" who are leading the charge for conservative control of Congress.

! Those "Young Guns" and other Republicans have made repealing Obama's signature healthcare reform law a centerpiece of their midterm election campaign. But even if Republicans gain control of the House and the Senate, Obama could always veto their repeals of health reform, and gaining enough support in the House and Senate to override such a veto would be difficult.

Reports have suggested that, absent a repeal, Republicans will look to "chip away" at the law.

"We're going to have to go and lay out the argument as to why we need a change in the White House, so we can manage a repeal and a replacement of the healthcare bill that passed," Cantor said in the same interview with Newsmax.

Obama and Democrats in Congress are also betting on their healthcare messaging resonating ! with voters at the polls.

The president will parti! cipate i n events on Wednesday marking the six-month anniversary of the reforms becoming law, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hailed the bill as an "advantage" for Democrats in the midterm elections.