Jim Hightower

We've heard a good deal about Democratic Party plans to reform America's corporatized, no-care health care system – but it's time we considered what Republican congressional leaders are offering.

It's really pretty simple – nothing. When it comes to altering the power of the insurance giants to control our health care options, the Republican position can be expressed in one word: HellNo! The party's intransigence stems not only from its servility to corporate funders, but also from its blind faith in the mythical workings of the Holy Free Market. The Washington Times, a Capital-area mouth piece for the GOP, summed up Republican opposition to Barack Obama's idea for a publicly-run insurance option in this sentence: "The government cannot possibly do for Americans what the marketplace can."

Let's see – that would be the marketplace that presently excludes 47 million Americans from any coverage, under-covers about twice that many, has doubled our insurance premiums in the past eight years, costs us more for health care per capita than any other country, limits our choice of doctors, creates profits for insurers by aggressively denying doctor-prescribed treatments to sick people, delivers a quality of care that ranks 37th in the world (just a notch above Slovenia), and intentionally blocks consumers from access to cheaper medicines.

Wow, I think Republicans are right – government couldn't possibly do all of that for the American people!

Three out of four Americans say that this current system, controlled by insurance-company profiteers, must be completely overhauled. Yet, all we're getting from the opposition party is head-in-the-sand subservience to the status quo. No wonder the GOP's job approval rating is lower than that of swine flu disese!

Aren't there any grassroots Republicans who can move their backward party forward?