Agence France-Presse:
A leading Republican Congressman said Sunday that his party would present by the end of the week its own plan for health care reform, one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities.
House Minority leader John Boehner spoke after Obama's top allies on Thursday unveiled sweeping compromise legislation, including a government-backed insurance plan to compete with private firms.
"By the end of this week, people will be able to look at one proposal" that provides transparent cost figures and clearly states the number of people to be covered, Boehner told CNN.
"Boehner declined to give details on the Republican proposal," AFP reports, "but said it would not increase taxes, cut existing government programs for the poor and elderly, or have 'mandates on individuals or businesses.'"
Republicans have a history of being sketchy on the details. In March, Republicans released an "alternative budget" that didn't actually include any numbers. Math is hard, you see, and it's much easier just to say you've got a budget that will reduce the deficit while cutting taxes than it is to actually reduce the deficit while cutting taxes. So the GOP just declared it so.
It was in this "budget" that we got our first glimpse of the Republican Healthcare plan:
"It's like someone showed them a flowchart," wrote Ezra Klein. "Once. And only for a few seconds. And refused to explain it." Not surprisingly, this whole numberless budget idea didn't go over very well. The GOP caught a lot of flack for trying to pull one over on the public -- rightly. It's insulting that this is just how stupid they believe everyone is... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
