The best thing anyone can say about Rep. McMorris-Rodgers' response to the President's State of the Union address is that it wasn't a disaster.
That's not saying much. If you enjoy being spoken to like you're very, very slow, I suppose it gets a C- for delivery. She didn't make glaring errors, she didn't reach for water, and she read the script into the correct camera. So she gets some style points.
If it sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, it's because I am. Not screwing it up is hardly a success, but that certainly didn't stop Newt Gingrich from singing her praises to the heavens, especially when it came to her remarks about health care.
Newtie was parading the Republican Alternative to Obamacare that is the farce I told you it is, and Krugman was having none of it. After pointing out that their alternative would actually destroy employer-based health insurance, he said he kept waiting for the actual response to begin.
"Where was the substance? There was nothing there," Krugman asked. "There was nothing. Absolutely no content. Lovely personal story, but absolutely zero policy content and that is actually true about everything that's happening. There is no Republican alternative on health care."
Or anything else. Just look at this list of 'plans' McMorris-Rodgers spoke of:
Republicans have plans to close the gap…
Plans that focus on jobs first without more spending, government bailouts, and red tape…
Every day, we’re working to expand our economy, one manufacturing job, nursing degree and small business at a time.
We have plans to improve our education and training systems so you have the choice to determine where your kids go to school…so college is affordable…and skills training is modernized.
And yes, it’s time to honor our history of legal immigration. We’re working on a step-by-step solution to immigration reform by first securing our borders and making sure America will always attract the best, brightest, and hardest working from around the world.
And with too many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, we have solutions to help you take home more of your pay – through lower taxes, cheaper energy costs, and affordable health care.
I'll give ten bucks to anyone who actually finds some kind of substantive policy in those 'plans'.
In case you're not convinced yet, this is what happened just hours before the State of the Union address.
Did they debate immigration? No.
Did they debate education policy? No.
Did they focus on jobs and job creation? No.
Did they debate reinstating the unemployment extensions? No.
They did none of those things. Instead, they debated and passed HR 7, the IRS-will-decide-if-you-were-raped bill that President Obama has already said he will veto should it ever sneak past the Senate and onto his desk.
They passed yet another useless, invasive, insulting abortion bill.
And then they put McMorris-Rodgers up there in front of the camera to smile sweetly and tell each and every viewer that they're really very happy to just leave the status quo in place, but if you're having a tough time, don't worry, because she'll pray for you. She'll pray for you tonight.
Today's GOP. All talk, no action.
