Blunt Overruled: House GOP Once Again Promising Health Care Legislation

Yesterday, Roy Blunt said introducing health care legislation as he'd been promising to do for months would "confuse the focus" and "start diverting attention" from their attacks on the Democratic health care reform proposals.

Those comments didn't go over so well.

Late this afternoon, though, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) renewed his caucus' commitment to introducing a "bill."

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Thursday afternoon that Republicans will have an alternative healthcare reform bill to offer but did not say when it would be ready.

He told reporters that Republicans will “make decisions at the appropriate time for how we’ll proceed,” but that they are "putting the final touches on [their]bill, just as Democrats" are doing.

The leader made the statement on a conference call Thursday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, House GOP leaders were peppered with questions after The Hill reported that Boehner’s healthcare point man, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), said his party may not even need to put forward a plan...

Thus far, Republicans have offered piecemeal amendments to the Democratic plans in the committees of jurisdiction but have yet to present cohesive legislation that would detail how much their reform plan would cost.

Republicans have made much of the high price tag that the Democratic-sponsored plan is projected to cost based on scoring by the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Without legislative text, however, the CBO can’t score a Republican alternative.

The Post-Dispatch's Bill Lambrecht also reports that Blunt and his colleagues are also promising to health care legislation, beginning tomorrow, in the form of piecemeal amendments.