Last week, the Republican Party unveiled the result of hundreds of man hours that went into the redesign of its website, which is now complete with Michael Steele's blog, "Change the Game" (formerly, "What up?" until someone pointed out that might be mildly patronistic).  Interesting that all that time went into a new web page, not an alternative health care plan.

It was in late summer that Democrats passed their first version of health care reform legislation through the Senate's Helath, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee under the stewardship of the late Senator Teddy Kennedy.  And the startling line for Republican opposition to health care reform was even further back than that.  But even now- in the middle of October- Republicans have yet to propose a single piece of alternative legislation that would bring down the cost of care and insure more Americans.

In fact, the only semblance of an alternative "plan" they've floated is made up of ideas already proposed in the Democratic plan: letting Americans buy insurance across state lines, and preventing Americans from being dropped from coverage based on preexisting conditions.  That's basically the extent of Republican health care reform, though the GOP also touts tort reform of "junk lawsuits"- that is, people suing their doctors for botched surgeries and such- as a major component of reform.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers and found that tort reform would bring down the cost of care by less than .5%.  But what's more is that the Republican plan offers no numbers, no specifics, no legislative language...nothing. 

In fact, if you visit the party website, you'll find that the "GOP Solutions for Health Care" is actually just a series of snippets of sound bites and talking points from a single speech by Charles Boustansy, a Louisiana Congressman who used to be a doctor.  Beyond that, no Republican has been willing to put pen to paper to craft a real plan.

This is nothing new.  When President Barack Obama put together one of the most ambitious budget proposals (for better or worse) of any president in the last 50 years, Republicans launched into almost lock-step opposition.  The House Republican caucus voted with a unanimous, resounding "no."  The Senate GOP voted mostly "no," except for three crossover votes that pushed Democrats over the line.  When it came time to say a word with more than one syllable, the GOP coughed up a gem of a proposal: their own version of the "budget" had no numbers whatsoever.

Because who can really criticize your effort if you haven't put one in?  Hey, at least their website looks good...well, maybe not.  But I guess they can get some points for trying there.