As the old axiom goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sadly, even after last week's crushing defeat in the special election in New York's 26th congressional district, the GOP is doing exactly that: returning to the same idea again.
What amazes us is not that Republicans seem to want to continue to fight a battle that it was just proven they will not win.
It's that Republicans are in denial about WHY they lost.
Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida admitted to the the Wall Street Journal over the holiday weekend that Republicans don't think it was the Republican plan that was wrong - they think it was how they framed their message about their plan to the public.
The plan proposed by Wisconsin Republican, Rep. Paul Ryan was voted down last week - with the exception of a number of Republicans who insist this is the political hill they want to die on. That vote now makes it not just Ryan's plan, but also the plan of the entire GOP.
The Republican plan isn't hard to understand. For those Americans currently 55 or above, your Medicare eligibility age will go up to 67. Some benefits will likely be clipped. For those currently below age 55 - say, age 54 - when you are supposed to begin receiving Medicare, you'll get a voucher from the government instead. That voucher coupon is supposed to allow you to buy health care insurance from a private company. Of course, the Republican plan says that no private company will be required to sell you health insurance.
What insurance company, that is worth ANY of its stock, will sell an insurance policy to any American over the age of 67? Even for the few who won't have pre-existing conditions, the actuarial tables just don't add up to any kind of worthwhile risk for an insurance company.
This isn't rocket science - but it IS the Republican plan for "saving" Medicare. The only thing the current Republican Party honestly wants to save though, is the name Medicare, so they can slap it on their health care privatization plan.
There ARE some actions that previous iterations of the Republican Party approved that would help lower health care costs for everyone - like the individual mandate, which they invented and supported for most of the last twenty years. Instead of supporting those parts of the ACA they agree with, then focusing on the parts they still want changed, Republicans continue to demonize the entire Affordable Care Act as "ObamaCare" as though it doesn't include any ideas they originated.
If Republican legislators were truly interested in improving policy - which is their JOB - they would also have to make clear what parts of the ACA they originally stood for, including the individual health care mandate which they invented.
As Johnathan Bernstein pointed out in the Washington Post over the weekend, there aren't currently any incentives for Republicans to get their policy positions straight. As Republican Rep. Stearns clearly said, to them, it's about how the GOP's message on that flawed Ryan plan was framed - not the flaws in the policy itself, but the message.
We know some Republicans think taking another swing at health care reform is too smart by half.
Sadly, the facts make it clear that taking another whack at health care reform is only going to give the GOP a splitting headache going into 2012.
