GOP's Record of Being Wrong About Healthcare Reform

Think Progress has a great collection of conservative predictions about passing healthcare reform; the consensus being that it was dead, dead, dead:

– Dick Morris, Fox News commentator, November 4: “A deathblow to ObamaCare.”

– Fred Barnes, Fox News commentator, January 20: “The health care bill, ObamaCare, is dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection.”

– Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, January 26: “That’s why Obamacare is dead.”

– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Whip, February 24: “Speaker Pelosi doesn’t have the votes in the House. . . . It is futile for for them to continue to try and push something on the American people that frankly won’t result in better health care.”

– Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), March 3: “I think the votes are not there and I don’t see where we get them.”

– Cantor, March 5: “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the votes needed to pass a health-care bill in the House of Representatives.”

/>– Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Minority Leader, March 14: “If she had 216 votes, this bill would be long gone. They tried to pass it in September, October, November, December, January, February. Guess what? They don’t have the votes.”

– Boehner, March 17: Health care reform will pass “over my dead body.”

– Cantor, March 19: “[T]here’s no way they can pass this bill.”

And here's Eric Cantor declaring healthcare reform dead, beating the talking point into the ground like a tent peg:

Huffington Post has more. Given their track record on reform so far, you can pretty much count on them to continue being wrong.

Bonus fun, John McCain gets all pouty and warns that the GOP are going to take their ball and go home.

The Hill:

GOP senators emerged Monday to caution that the health debate had taken a toll on the institution, warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.

"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."

Oh dear! Republicans are going to stop being as bipartisan and cooperative as they have been so far. Considering that the GOP has been blocking everything, this really doesn't strike as much of a consequence. It's kind of like saying, "We're going to stop being assholes and start being assholes" -- it's hard to tell what the difference is supposed to be.