Republicans and Health Care

"Gather 'round, you little lovelies -- how'd you like your Grampa to tell you a bit of a Christmas story?" "Well, I think I just might then. Have you ever heard the tale of Nelson the Hard-Nosed Reindeer?"

Dear Dr. Politics: I'm hoping you can help me with a problem. I'm a member of a small but important government organization located on Capitol Hill. (Hint: It has 100 members, two from each state.)

Why was the GOP so elated with Chicago's Olympic failure? Was it the joy in avoiding the inevitable cost overruns? The security concerns? Or was it enough that Obama had failed?

Here's the inspiring part: the sight of John Ensign sitting behind a microphone and talking about how people need to follow the rules. He can do all this while keeping a straight face!

The health care debate has birthed an entirely new tense: In case the Present Tense and the Past Subjunctive and the Future Conditional aren't enough to satisfy you, now there's the Cataclysmic Hypothetical.

It's not just the bizarro "birther" brigades that are treating Obama as electorally illegitimate. Think about the way the health-care fight has played out recently.

Not only do the various plans now being considered fail to "bend the curve" of health care spending downward, every one of the plans would send the curve still higher.