Roy Blunt on GOP plan: Never mind
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt
Roy Blunt, chair of the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group, has decided that Republicans don’t need their own version of a health care reform plan.
Blunt, of course, is the congressional rep from Springfield, Mo. He’s running for the Senate to replace Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, who is retiring.
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said, “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?”
Blunt’s not alone in his derision of the bill. Also from The Hill:
… (T)his summer, GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber intend to forgo a reprisal of that initiative and instead plan to fire up their voters by discussing what they call “job-killing” Democratic policies.
“I’d rather go debate at home and see our members carry the message there, and frankly I’d like to see the Democrats go home and get pounded on,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the former head of the House GOP campaign arm.
Earlier this week, many House Republicans went to the floor to repeatedly note the public’s eroding lack of confidence in the $787 billion stimulus law, asking, “Where are the jobs?”
A Washington Post-affiliated blog called “Who Runs Gov” said that the Democrats are planning to hammer on Blunt’s acknowledgment that Republicans have no plan
This reporting comes the day after President Barack Obama gave a televised prime-time press conference focusing on health care reform.
As the Associated Press reported, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats have the votes for health care reform. From the AP:
While Pelosi said she has “no question” that Democrats have the votes they need, she stopped short of promising the full House would act on the legislation before beginning a monthlong vacation at the end of July.
But moderate and conservative Democrats bristled at the speaker’s comment. From the AP story:
Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., expressed unhappiness at the Speaker’s words. “I’ve been meeting to death, so if that has been for naught until they counted votes, and just to occupy our time, I’m sorry,” he said.
“I thought we were legitimately having conversations about writing a good health care bill for America.”
Reuters said the president faces “uncertain prospects” with his health care reform push:
One reason Obama has been so adamant about getting an agreement as soon as possible is to keep up the momentum and not let efforts to complete an overhaul die, as the last attempt to change the system did in 1993 when Bill and Hillary Clinton’s proposals went down in defeat.
The president has been using the bully pulpit of the White House to argue for a deal, and is quite willing to use campaign-style tactics to exert maximum pressure.
And the Washington Post said, “With the effort in danger of flagging and spilling into the autumn months where momentum could fade, Obama made his case for the overhaul and took on his critics.”
The next few weeks will be very interesting.
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
Wish Rep. Blunt would summarize opposition to the President’s BluePill-RedPill plan
just as succinctly as Mr. Obama did in supporting it:
“If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?” — President Obama
Excellent summary of Obama’s speech:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Take-the-red-pill-Mr-President-51473502.html
No health care plan save dislike for what the democrats have forged. The leader of the republican party, rush oxycontin limbaugh true to his words: ”I hope he fails”.
If he did have one, would you have paid any attention?
Personally I would like to see Republicans offer some sort of alternative, but he’s absolutely right. Why waste taxpayer time and money composing legislation that will never get to the floor and that the public likely will never hear about.
Nancy Pelosi has lower approval ratings than Dick Cheney and far lower approval ratings than Sarah Palin. And yet Democrats have allowed her policy values to carry the day - David Brooks
Of course not Jack. The Post played this silly game last summer when the Republicans stayed in Washington to hammer out an energy bill during the record price spikes after the Democrats gave up and ran away. The Post thinks that just because they don’t report something people will actually believe nothing is going on.
Never mind that it makes little sense for Republicans to waste time on a counter proposal when there’s no chance in heck it will come to the floor, but it’s disingenuous at best to claim they aren’t doing anything. They’ve offered several serious amendments only to have them summarily dismissed.
Obama’s rambling, incoherent press conference last night is like a metaphor for his short term as president. Stories like this are meant soley to deflect attention from Obamacare’s impending collapse and to shift blame from where it belongs.
…is like a metaphor…
That wasn’t at all redundant, was it?
If the Republicans put a plan out there, liberals and the media will waste time picking apart that plan, which has absolutely no chance of passing, while the Pelosi plan is pushed through. Just because Republicans don’t put forward a plan doesn’t mean the Pelosi plan is good. In fact, pointing out the faults with the Pelosi plan could be the best way of saving our healthcare system.
Where is Robin Carnahan? Seriously - have we heard anything out of her mouth on this (or any other) issue?
Christ, at least Blunt is out there engaged on the issue. And he happens to be right, anyway. This bill is garbage.
Glad you are covering this, but where were you guys when Russ Carnahan LIED about the cost of Obamacare? Sure, this is news, but when the proponents of the legislation are outright lying about it (and getting laughed at by their constituents), I think that is pretty important.
The people who propose a massive government takeover of the economy are the ones who have the burden to prove it is a good idea. Blunt is right, the GOP bill will never make the light of day anyway, so why bother. Work on improving this bill, or just kill it outright.