How about that GOP health care reform plan? Which is (drumroll)...nada

Rather than trust what politicians say they'll do when they're in power, I trust what they actually do when they're actually in power.

The Republicans were actually in power--in control of both branches of Congress, the judiciary, and the executive branch--for six years. Plus control of Congress for six years before that, of the executive for two years after that, and of the judiciary for the foreseeable future.

During the six years they held sway over all, here's what they did to change our health care system: nothing. Except to engineer a massive unfunded giveaway to big pharma, of course.

So although I can think of better health care systems than the one the Democrats passed, this mild reform sure beats the Republicans' actual alternative: nothing. And no changes in our health care system is financially unsustainable, as economists of every stripe will tell you.
 
So I don't believe the Republicans' promises to reform health care better--not because I can read their minds, or because I don't like them, or because I object to their political philosophy. I don't believe them because they taught me not to when they were in power.

So our only choice is the Democrats' reform as is, or nothing if the Republicans regain control of all three branches of government, or some minor bipartisan tweaks under the current divided government.

One more think that reduces the Republicans' credibility--again without any comment on their stated party's political principles--is that reputable fact-checking organizations like politifact.com and factcheck.org have demonstrated repeatedly that the Democrats tell fibs about their plan while the Republicans tell ginormous whoppers about theirs--and about the Democrats' plan.

Republican friends tell me those factchecking sites must be in the pay of the Democrats. If they are the Democrats aren't getting their money's worth, because they rap the Democrats' knuckles constantly. There are no angels on this playing field. But the Republicans are far worse.

Their prevarication about the Congressional Budget Office is one outstanding symptom. Every time the CBO gives an analysis the GOP likes they quote it as gospel. Every time the CBO goes the other way they dismiss it. While the factchecking sites give the CBO a strong endorsement hedged with some cavils.

I consider myself an Eisenhower Republican, which means there's no place for me in today's Republican Party, so this liberal Republican had to become a conservative Democrat.

And for me the health care reform issue is just one more example of how the Republican Party cashed in its principles for tribal advantage--most egregiously by preaching atomism--that we have no responsibility for anyone else, and no one has responsibility for us, and anything else is socialism.

This is not how responsible people behave. Believing that we need to have each other's back isn't \"European socialism.\" It's a value that was preached on the American frontier by our ancestors.
Look at the values shown in the new film version of \"True Grit.\" Back then, \"government\" was the only thing standing between an honest citizen and the criminals who longed for lawless times where the gang with the most guns called the shots (so to speak). Little Mattie Ross stood for law and order and for social responsibility. Not the State running your life. Just making it safe enough for you got get to run your life.

While today's Republican Party--particularly in its stand against any real health care reform--stands for the morality of a selfish six year old boy who doesn't like to be told what to do, and calls nobody getting to tell you what to do \"freedom.\"

Real adults define freedom very differently. And those of us who get sick and can't get health care because of this philosophy of, well, selfishism, will find that their freedom just got taken away from them.