FLAIT

For a year we heard the rhetoric spewing from the right about health care reform. They called it "socialism" (I wish), "a government take-over" (I wish), and said it contained "death panels" and that it will destroy the country.

But despite all that, health care reform (if you want to call it that) finally got through Congress without a vote from a single Republican. Not one. We'll have to wait a few years to see if the legislation actually makes a difference. But if history is any indication, it might work better then I expect it to because a broken clock is right more often then Republicans.

Read this. It's a list of what Republicans said when they opposed Social Security in 1935, opposed Medicare in 1965 and opposed Bill Clinton's tax increases in 1994.

Their words in opposition are always the same: fear and demise.
The result is always the same too: they were wrong.

Not a single Republican voted for Clinton's tax increases either. They basically said the economic sky was going to fall in. Since the 1990s were one of the best economic times in the country's history, they weren't just wrong, they couldn't have been more wrong.

And let's not forget Iraq - the non-existent WMDs, that we'd be greeted as liberators, and the oil would pay for the war - dead wrong; and their brilliant idea to deregulate Wall St. and not to regulate derivatives - couldn't be more wrong. Again. And when Obama's "death panels" fail to materialize, they'll really, really, really be wrong...again.

That's some record. In fact, the Republicans remind me of a scene in the Honeymooners, the one where "Ralph" tries to sell the handy kitchen helper and "Alice" was going over all his other "crazy hair-brained schemes," all of which failed:

Ralph: Nobody's a hundred percent, Alice
Alice: You are. You've been wrong every time.

Republicans are wrong every time too. And yet, the GOP still has tens of millions of followers who believe, and will continue to believe, everything they say (and the so called "liberal media" will be right there to record every word of it).

Would you ask the 1962 Mets how to build a baseball team? Would you ask Gen. Custer about a battle plan? Would you ask George Bush to run a war? Would you ask "Wrong Way" Corrigan for directions? Would you go into business with "Ralph Kramden"? No, no, no, no, and no. Then why the hell would anyone with half a brain ever listen to a Republican about health care anything?

Ask a silly question...

Next on the Congressional docket is financial/Wall St. reform (by all means, let's listen to what Republicans have to say!). So the GOP will:

1. Tell us they have all the answers.
2. Call for "bipartisanship," which means total capitulation from the Democrats and giving Republicans everything they want.
3. Say the legislation Democrats are calling for will "destroy the free market," "destroy capitalism," and "destroy the country."
4. Whip up fear and rage among their brainwashed base.
5. Lie, spin, throw spitballs - whatever it takes - to prevent Democrats from passing real reform.

So...

6. A watered down version will get through, with a handful of Republican votes (if any).
7. Democrats pat themselves on the back on a job "well done."
8. Within 10 years a "too big to fail" (investment) bank fails, taking down part of the economy with it.
9. Republicans blame liberals, Democrats and "big government."