Wilson Event Inadvertently Highlights Blunt's Failed Leadership On Health Care Reform

I did a double take yesterday reading the coverage of Joe Wilson's visit to Springfield when I saw that Wilson was actively promoting Rep. Tom Price's health care legislation at an event with Roy Blunt.  Rather than praise the 3.5-page outline offered by Blunt and his Health Care Solutions Group, Wilson praised the proposal put together by Price and the conservative Republican Study Committee.

Price's bill, inaccurately described in the News-Leader as "the House Republican's alternative health care proposal," has been spurned by Blunt and the House GOP leadership, and has actually been the source of some embarrassment for Blunt.

Indeed, the fact that there's some confusion about whether or not Price's legislation is "the House Republican alternative" is testament to how enormously Blunt as failed as the leader of the GOP Health Care Solutions Working Group.

As you probably recall, Blunt was chosen to be the point person on health care issues for the House Republican leadership in February by Minority Leader John Boehner. Blunt became the leader of the 'Health Care Solutions Group," and was charged with presenting "real solutions" because they would "not be content to be ‘the party of no.'"

Months passed and Republicans worried about their absence from the health care debate, but Blunt could not or would not present those promised "real solutions" to the public. He finally released a four page outline that didn't actually have an estimates of who would be covered or how much it would cost, but it was instantly panned by the DC press corps as lacking any real substance.  Still, Blunt continued to promote his memo here in Missouri, even shamelessly claiming that his memo was "actually much more detailed" than those presented by Democratic leaders.

All the while, Blunt promised that more details would be coming. "I guarantee you we will provide you with a bill that costs less and provides better care for the American people," he said on June 17. By late July, Blunt was blaming his failures on Democratic leaders, suggesting that no one would let him present his totally awesome ideas. I don't think anyone believed his excuses, but that was his story.

Enter Tom Price and HR3400, pushed by Wilson Saturday night. Price leads the conservative Republican Study Committee, a group of GOP legislators who work on their own super-conservative policy proposals.  Here's what Roll Call wrote about the introduction of Price's bill on July 27:

[N]ot all Republicans are waiting for Democrats to make the first move. The conservative Republican Study Committee is expected to release a bill on Thursday emphasizing tax incentives and pooling mechanisms to achieve universal coverage.

Blunt and Boehner had nothing to do with Price's proposal, and Price's proposal has not been endorsed by the GOP leadership at any point.  Some Republicans have pointed to HR 3400 to rebut claims that there aren't any GOP bills about health care, but as the Associated Press outlined last week, HR3400 is not the Republican leadership's alternative.

Republican leaders chose not to draft their own comprehensive bill, focusing instead on attacking Democrats' plans as too costly and bureaucratic. Some prominent Republicans now fear they are getting tagged as the "party of no," and they want the GOP to offer more solutions to the nation's health care problems...

Aware of the criticisms, House Republican leaders have compiled lists of bills and principles that various colleagues have offered this year. Most are narrowly focused, although a 268-page bill by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., covers an array of health care topics.

Democrats scoff at the Republican proposals, calling them skimpy outlines that would do little if anything to make health care more affordable and efficient. The Republicans' repeated calls for health-related tax cuts, without credible spending cuts to offset them, would dramatically increase the deficit, Democrats say. They note that no major GOP proposal has been subjected to scrutiny by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which has given cost estimates for the Democratic proposals.

... Party leaders have not associated themselves with Price's multi-pronged bill, perhaps the most ambitious of all those drafted by Republicans.

Moreover, if Price's bill was "the House Republican Alternative," one would assume that Roy Blunt would be promoting because, well, he's the leader of the House GOP's health care efforts.  But if you look at the list of "House Republican Solutions for Health Care Reform" that Blunt added to his official website in embarrassment last week (almost certainly in response to the criticisms about not having a comprehensive alternative), you won't find H.R. 3400 on that list.

In fact, if the GOP leadership changes its mind and rallies around Price's bill, it would be extremely embarrassing for Blunt.  Despite his months of promises and guarantees, nothing has come out of his "Solutions Group."  He guaranteed a bill -- his words, not mine-- that would cost less and provide better care, and has yet to do so.  If Boehner and Cantor decide that it's best to counter the attacks about not having a plan by endorsing Price's bill -- and stop waiting on Blunt's failed task force -- I'm not sure how Blunt could spin that one away.