Still waiting for an affordable health care alternative from Blunt & Co.

A month ago, the Politico reported that Republican insiders in Washington were growing anxious with their party's lack of organization and inability to present an alternative to the President's ambitious plan for health care reform.

GOP stumbling in health care fight
April 20, 2009

Republicans look across the health reform battlefield and see the Democrats organized, energized and flush with cash — with several groups lined up to promote the president’s plan, and a message honed by years of preparation.

Then they look into their own camp — and get nervous...

[T]hey also know the clock is ticking, as key Republican senators engage in bipartisan talks and House rank-and-file meet privately to develop alternative proposals. The House Republican Health Care Task Force will release a “solid” platform within the next month, said a spokesman for its leader, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

The void on the right has been so vast that a millionaire health care entrepreneur named Rick Scott stepped into it as the unlikely face of Republican opposition....

Well, it's almost month later, and the void remains. Blunt says his team still working on a set of partisan talking points for conservative Republicans to "rally around," but the delays in presenting an alternative have led to conflicting strategies from leading Republicans about how to respond, if at all.

Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), who is helming the House GOP’s healthcare task force, said Monday that he wants to provide his colleagues with an alternative reform proposal before Congress recesses for Memorial Day. “We hope to have a set of solutions outlined that we think Republicans can rally around for our members to take home with them when they leave here at the end of the month,” he told The Hill.

That strategy would contrast with the approach espoused by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa], who has urged his fellow Senate Republicans to hold off issuing a counterproposal unless the bipartisan talks in the upper chamber fail to bear fruit.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan coalition, led by President Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), has been working on actual legislation (as opposed to partisan talking points).  Obama has enlisted the support of health care industry groups as well; it's hard to know how long all of the industry organizations will remain on board, but their willingness to work on new solutions is certainly a good sign.

Legislation in both the House and Senate is expected to start moving through committee in June.  If Blunt has any intention of being relevant, he'd better hurry, and make sure that his health care alternative has a few more details than the "budget" he and GOP leaders presented in March.