I admit to being somewhat critical of the GOP.   I publicly laughed at them when they proposed an alternative budget to the Obama administration's.   I was a silly liberal and thought they should include numbers in their budget.

I scoffed at their claim to the mantle of family values as I wait to see who's next to play, "I'm sorry for disappointing my family by having an affair" and always bet on whether it's with another woman or another man.  

I get angry at the numerous holds put on Obama's nominees for which no reason is given.   "The party of NO", I would say.

But then came the health care debate and I realized that I had misjudged the GOP.  It takes real genius to offer an outline with no numbers and to call it a health care reform proposal.   (And here I thought that it was a complicated problem but apparently it's a small problem that can be solved by a four page outline.  Which is what was offered by Republicans who promised to flesh out the details "later".)

You see health care reform is a very important subject!    While many are very happy with their current health care; over one out of every seven Americans are without health insurance.   Yet even with all those uninsured, we spend more per person on health care than ANY other country on the planet.   The World Health Organization says, "The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance."   In fact, the United States has the LEAST efficient health care in the Industrialized World.   And these numbers are getting worse, as more and more employers cut health care due to rising costs and the recession.  If current trends in pricing continue, by 2015 over 20% of our GDP will go to health care!   That's 1 out of every 5 dollars earned going to your insurance company.

But yesterday at a town hall meeting with his constituents in Waukon, Iowa, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) filled in the blanks on the Republican Health Care Proposal.   After explaining the difficulties his family had experienced in obtaining health coverage, one gentleman asked the Senator, "why is your insurance so much cheaper than my insurance and so much better than my insurance?"  Unfortunately the Senator was a bit "miffed" by the question and told his constituent that he "should go work for John Deere" because thier employees don't pay anything for insurance.   But John Deere recently laid off 500 employees in Iowa so the voter didn't think that this idea was practical for his family. He continued to question the Senator about the Senate Health Care coverage (which apparently Sen. Grassley knew little about since another audience member had to explain his benefits to him and how they differ from what the rest of America gets.)  Finally, the original questioner asked, "How come I can't have the same thing you have?"  At this point Sen. Grassley expanded publicly upon the Republican Health Care plan with his answer,  "You can!  Just go work for the government!"

Thanks for your input, Chuck!   NICE TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST PART OF THE PARTY OF "NO"!