Republicans get their first chance today in the U.S. House to vote on a repeal of the Obama health reform law, starting what could be a year filled with GOP attacks on the signature achievement of this White House.

"We are here because we heard the American people in the last election," said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who led off the debate for Republicans, arguing that it was more than time to get rid of the new health reforms.

"The more we learn about the new health care law, the more we understand how devastating it will be to our economy," added Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA).

Meanwhile, Democrats weren't playing the role of a shrinking violet, as they stepped up their attacks on the GOP bid to repeal, charging that it would strip new benefits from millions of Americans.

"Some people want to take us back to another period, another time," said Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who argued that repeal is a major mistake.

"We've come so far, we cannot go back," Lewis said.

Those remarks came at a "hearing" that Democrats set up with opponents of the repeal bid, bringing in individuals who have benefited from the changes made by the health reform law to bolster the argument that repeal would harm consumers.

"129 million Americans have pre-existing conditions and could lose their health care coverage," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, as Democrats trotted out a study which broke down numbers by Congressional Districts in major metropolitan areas.

Republicans also had their own data points ready, as their study focused on the negative economic impact of the reform law.

(One aside, as a reporter covering the Congress, I have gotten to the point that I almost ignore all of these studies, because I have seen both sides tell me repeatedly over the past three decades that Locusts Are Coming because of a certain bill pressed by the other party, and so far, no locusts or plagues have appeared.)

As for today's vote, only a handful of Democrats are expected to join with Republicans on this repeal vote.  Four Democrats voted for the rule governing the consideration of this bill: Rep Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Rep. Larry Kissell and Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina and Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas.

Including those four lawmakers, there are only 13 Blue Dog Democrats left in the House who voted against the health reform bill last year, so there really isn't a large universe of possible 'Yes' votes for repeal from the ranks of House Democrats.

Yes, this bill does face an uphill fight in the Senate, that is very true.  But we'll worry about that story later, as something tells me there will be repeated parliamentary firefights on the floor of the Senate over this matter.

For now, Republicans will celebrate their vote today, but they know that tougher fights are ahead in terms of efforts to stop money that would fund the operations of the health reform law and more.