This was disappointing to be sure. Even after the Democrats ran up the white flag and admitted there would be neither cap and tax nor health care reform prior to the August recess, Roy Blunt (R-Mo) initially informed us that the GOP wouldn’t bother offering their own alternative to reforming health care. (Hat tip to the Plum Line.)
“Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they’ve got to whatever we’re offering right now?”
After being reminded that he was the head of the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group and that they had already said they were “drafting legislation,” Blunt issued a revised statement.
“Our reform plan to lower costs, increase access, and improve quality was released weeks ago and it is well-known. There’s a variety of tactics that could be employed during the debate on the House floor and the leadership won’t make a final decision next week until the Democrats announce how they will proceed.”
Where to even begin, Roy? Yes, anyone who regularly follows the reindeer games of the beltway would admit that – at least in the old school play book – there’s nothing more fun and profitable than giving the Democrats enough rope to hang themselves and sitting back to watch the ensuing train wreck. But are you interested in nothing beyond winning short term? Wouldn’t you rather win and actually govern and build consensus?
Some of your folks were recently talking about a system of local cooperatives, seeded with government funds, which could work like a credit union and provide lower cost care through group savings. What happened to that? And there was a previous idea to simply establish a means test for people who actually can’t afford health insurance and offer them a five thousand dollar stipend which could only be used to purchase insurance from the many private plans currently available. Combined with the savings for waste and abuse which both parties claim can be found, that one would come in costing some multiple of tens of billions. Yes, that’s still a lot of money, but compared to the amounts the Democrats are flushing on a monthly basis, I bet you could have most of your crew doing back flips to vote for a plan with that price tag.
Yes, support for some sort of public, government owned and operated monstrosity is evaporating like summer dew on the grass. And we know that the Democrats won’t even bring any plan you generate up for a vote. But you’re still drawing a salary and you have work to do. Show us you have better ideas instead of no ideas. Don’t leave us in 2010 and 2012 with a choice between “The Party of Bad Ideas” and the “The Party of At Least We’re Not Democrats.” If you do the latter, you may not be rushing toward the sweet election day victories which are now beginning to look as if they are within your grasp. Even if you win that way but don’t produce results, we’ll kick your butts back out of the majority just like we did in 2006 and 2008.