Republicans Missed The Boat On Health Reform

Now that Democrats in the House are nearing a vote on an historic health care reform bill, with the Senate not far behind, the Republican leadership is supposedly crafting its own 11th hour alternative that will be more market-driven. What took them so long? What has House Minority Leader John Boehner been waiting for?

Up until now, all the Republicans have done is gripe about President Obama and his fellow “socialists” in Congress taking over our health care system (when, in fact, the government already pays a huge portion of the tab via Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Administration hospitals–and thank goodness they do, because if they didn’t, who would?).

President Obama, perhaps naively, came into office pledging a bipartisan effort. Whether you agree that he was sincere, or fault him to even trying to accomplish such a Utopian goal in our poisoned political culture, I think we can agree that Republicans all along have wanted a radically different approach.

So, did the Republicans go off and craft their own preferred bill these past months? Nope. All they did is take pot shots at the President and anyone in Congress pushing for reform. So NOW the Republicans are pledging to come up with their own bill?