The GOP's Past And Future Acknowledge The Republican Party Has Failed On Health Care Reform

Yesterday when former GOP Senate leader, presidential candidate and health care spokesperson (well... Viagra is kind of health care) Bob Dole, joined a growing contingent of non-teabagger/non-dittohead Republicans in imploring the GOP to abandon obstructionism and get onboard the health care reform train, few of his party's congressional caucus gave a damn. Jim DeMint's, Tom Coburn's and Miss McConnell's Republican Senate obstructionist caucus is a very different animal from the one Bob Dole ran.

Dole told Kansas reporters that "opposition to the president's health care package had been driven by knee-jerk partisanship." But if they can dismiss Dole as yesterday's news and ignore him, it's harder to ignore Wisconsin reactionary, Paul Ryan, who was tasked by Boehner to try to come up with some kind of a health care package when Roy Blunt failed at the job that was originally assigned to him. "Failed" might be too strong a word to describe Blunt's results since, apparently, he didn't even attempt to put together a Republican alternative to comprehensive reform, other than more tax cuts for the rich-- the GOP default position on everything and anything. Many right-wing Republicans are touting Ryan as a future party leader.

Ryan hasn't come up with anything useful either and on CNBC today, during an exchange with Barney Frank, he admitted pretty much what Alan Grayson said last week-- albeit more colorfully-- about the Republicans' interest in fixing the health care crisis; they have no interest-- none.

The key moment came during a debate moderated by CNBC this morning, when GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin openly conceded that his party should have fixed health care while in power-- and even expressed regret at the GOP’s failure to do so. Dems say the comment perfectly encapsulates the GOP’s fundamental unseriousness about reform.

The exchange kicked off when Ryan claimed that multiple aspects of our health care crisis could be solved without a “government takeover” of health care. ["Government takeover" is a talking point, not a reality; it doesn't move the process forward-- nor is it meant to; the purpose is to upset people with false premises.] Frank called him out, pointedly asking why Republicans hadn’t figured out that the health care crisis could be solved (their way) during all the years they were in power.

“I’m glad you now understand that,” Frank continued. “Can you tell me at what moment the revelation occurred?”

After Ryan demurred, noting that he had submitted bills over the years, Frank pressed again, prompting this exchange:

FRANK: You had control of the Congress. Why didn’t the Republican Congress act on it?

RYAN: I will have a moment of bipartisan of agreement. We should have fixed this under our watch and I’m frustrated we didn’t.

Coincidentally, the DCCC sent a press release to media outlets in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Janesville today asking a simple question: "Does Representative Paul Ryan Think Women Should Pay More for Heath Care?" It's not a question Ryan will be comfortable answering since his voting record is at variance with the answer he would like to be able to tell women voters in Wisconsin's first congressional district.

Two simple questions for Representative Paul Ryan: should women pay more for health care and should insurance companies be allowed to call pregnancy a pre-existing condition? That’s the status quo that Ryan and Republican Leaders are fighting to protect.
 
House Republicans defending these discriminatory practices against women should not come as any surprise following the NRCC’s comment this week that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be ‘put in her place.’
 
“Does Representative Paul Ryan think women should pay more for health care and pregnancy should be considered a pre-existing condition,” asked Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The fact that Representative Ryan would still fight to protect a status quo where women and families pay more for health care in this tough economy redefines what it means to be out of touch."

 The bills being opposed and obstructed by Ryan and his Republican cronies would prevent current Insurance Industry practices that force women of child-bearing age pay higher rates based on their gender and stop allowing them to be routinely (and legally) deny coverage to pregnant women. Ryan has accepted over half a million dollars in thinly disguised bribes from the Insurance Industry-- more than double what any other member of the Wisconsin congressional delegation has taken, including members who were in Congress when he was still in school and just learning to be an asshole.

Defending these abhorrent practices, one insurance spokesman ally of Ryan's called pregnancy a “matter of choice.” To make matters worse, many insurance companies consider C-Sections a “pre-existing condition” while a subsidiary of United Health, one of the biggest insurance companies in the nation, “simply rejects” women who have had C-Sections. United Health has been pouring cash into the campaign coffers of anti-reform congressmen on both sides of the aisle.

According to recent studies 14.5 million women bet their health insurance on the individual market, rather than through employers or unions and these women are often victims of the worst predatory practices. On average they pay up to 48% more in premiums than men. In all but 12 states, insurance companies are completely free to continue this practice of “gender rating,” something GOP "reform" would spread to the whole country. They defend it in a number of ways, citing “egghead actuaries” and the fact that only women get pregnant. One industry official even acknowledged that women’s more frequent doctor’s visits lead to “better future health,” but even he still defended the practice of gender rating.

According to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Ryan's district had 1,600 health care-related bankruptcies in 2008, something that the legislation he opposes would prevent. There are 73,000 uninsured individuals in WI-01, 51,000 of whom would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance if H.R. 3200 is signed into law. Ryan opposes it-- and offers nothing to address the problems of any of those people. Please consider visiting Stop Paul Ryan and helping us-- and progressive Democrat Paulette Garin-- nip his political career in the bud before he can do more damage.

You can find Keith Olbermann's whole health care special comment from last night here, 5 clips. This was the final segment; it has nothing to do with Paul Ryan and other hopeless Republicans: