It seems to me, that Republicans are only concerned about regaining power for power's sake. Case in point: Health Care.
17 years ago, Republicans made a counter-proposal for individual mandated insurance, to the Clintons' employer mandated insurance. 4 years ago, Mitt Romney, supported by (now Senator) Scott Brown, proposed and signed into law, individually mandated insurance.
The difference between those proposals and the one Democrats passed and President Obama signed? The Democrats paid their way through higher taxes for certain high-income / high cost insurance taxes, while Republicans promised to cut spending (but never followed through).
If this seems like deja vu, it is: When Republicans passed the Medicare Part D expansion under George Bush, they did not propose cuts that would have paid for their increased spending. They knew ahead of time, that the expansion would cost an additional $400 billion over 10 years (CBO projections), yet did nothing to cut the size of government spending elsewhere. How do we know this? Because starting in 2002, the US government began to spend more than it was taking in, reversing course of a budget surplus that occurred in the second half of Bill Clinton's 8 years as President.
And we come right back to Senator Orrin Hatch's comments last December: "It was standard practice not to pay for things."
And to think that those libertarians from the Tea Party are embracing Republicans, who have made a living not paying for their spending habits!
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