And unfortunately, the Republican Party cannot get up in the morning and tell the public what it's ideas are because if they did they would lose every election cycle as far as the eye can see, so they lie, create pointless diversions (Gays and Guns) and appeal to the racists (Southern Strategy). When they win, they do such a fine job governing (Heck of a Job Brownie) that even the corporate media cannot shield them from their greed and stupidity.

I guess he must be the same Ryan of Wisconsin who voted in favor of the Medicare Prescription Drug of 2003. (The brief summary of this piece of legislation from the Wikipedia includes the A former US Comptroller calling it “probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s”.)

Here's the record of the House vote on the 2003 Medicare bill.

You'll note the Yea votes by all the usual subjects:

Ryan of Wisconsin.

Boehner.

Blunt.

Cantor.

You can look at the list yourself. 204 House Republicans voted in favor of it.

Currently the Democrats are trying to reform our health care system, with its spiraling costs and millions upon millions of uninsured Americans. Debate rages over things like the CBO score, in the shadow of poorly considered legislation like the 2003 Medicare act. It seems to me that Democrats are being more honest about costs that Republicans ever were when they controlled the White House and the Congress.

It also seems to me that Republicans think that if they stop health care reform, they'll benefit. I'm not sure how well founded that idea is. The costs will still be spiraling. Millions upon millions of Americans will still be without insurance.

And Republican are not the party of financial responsibility.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/…

Yes, these are exactly the sort of ideas that I want to see coming from the Republicans. My guess as to why they were not pursued (and to CStanley's observation, as to why the GOP is not pointing out that legislation was shot down by the Dems) is that these plans would have cost the government money. And we all know that taxpayers support government. It's probably easier for the GOP to go after Obama than to have to explain why their plans, even though less costly than the Dems' plans, would still be taxpayer supported.

At the moment the GOP's strategy for gaining support is to shoot down Obama. That may change tomorrow and perhaps they will try to paint Dems as obstructionists.

Who knows what the GOP is thinking these days?

The same thing with the GOP controlled the house, no Dem bill would get to the floor. I agree with Jazz, more ideas need to come out to reform health care so the best solutions from whatever party can be used.

My representative, Jim Matheson (D-UT) is a “Blue Dog” and is fighting for the Co-Op idea and I'm very proud he is.

So, Blunt is accurate when he says that nothing the GOP authors is going to see the light of day in Nancy's House- but I don''t know why he doesn't bother to specifically credit Ryan and his cosponsors and explain that they already have tried to put legislation forward but have been shot down.