No

I am officially declaring the Republican Party of the United States the party of uselessness. Some call them the party of "no." I can accept that but I am looking for more strident words these days. A matter of fact, why do any of them run for office and run the government? I've got an answer: to make sure government does not work and that the business community dominates the lives of the masses.

The Saturday night vote on health care is the latest evidence of their moral bankruptcy and political uselessness. The U.S. Senate voted to start debate on the health care bill pending in Congress. The bill, most agree, is pro-business in a lot of ways and will not cover all Americans with a single payer, universal health care system. It probably will not have a coherent public option but will provide private insurance companies with 31 million more customers. There are some good things for people and over 30 million people who did not have coverage, will have some kind of access to health care after this bill becomes law.

Yet, the Republicans did not even vote to start debate on this bill, a bill most agree, is flawed. The vote was 60-39 in favor of the Democrats and debate has begun with all Republicans voting "no." Imagine, the insanity of the GOP decision to vote party rather than people. This is what they do all day, everyday, no matter what. This is their modus operandi: forget about people. In fact, to hell with people. Party, baby. Party.

None of this is surprising. The GOP has had its share of moments of anti-government over the years, folks.

Under Ronald Reagan, the GOP wanted to re-classify ketchup a vegetable in the school lunch program to save money in the budget.

In the 90's with Newt Gingrich, Republican, running the House of Representatives, the party recklessly shut down the government in the name of party, and not people. The decision was a disaster politically and it allowed Bill Clinton to regain his footing as President.

There is more of this throughout our recent history. George W. Bush, Republican, starved the government but fed an insane war in Iraq with billions of dollars. Thousands of people died over there in that war by the way.

I don't need to document the inability of the Republican Party to do anything useful for people collectively for decades. The record speaks for itself. The party is the party of "no." They just vote against things and never for anything unless it benefits people who have already lined their pockets with billions of dollars.

But here with health care reform is a golden opportunity to break with the past, and show some guts and not one of the Republicans voted just to start debate. This is, I stress, not a vote for the bill, as written, but a vote for debate. This is their chance to offer up some innovative change to the bill that will make it more humane, that will reach out to the people.

Don't hold your breath because such an amendment is not forthcoming. The GOP's goal is to stand united and then wait until the next elections where they will rise up and say - look, we stood against health care reform. Over 40 million of you did not have any health care, and over 90 million did not have care at some point in 2007 and 2008 and we are here to tell you that we fought like hell to keep it that way. Even though we lost, if you vote for us, the health care coverage you have recently been granted, will be rescinded under our rule.

Who would vote for this crew?

By their own admission, the GOP had a plan. It was all about tax cuts and tort reform and would cover 3 million additional people, not 31 million. Unbelievable.

If you had no care at all, and are a person who is playing Russian roulette with your life involuntarily, how can you vote for the GOP? They are morally bankrupt and politically absurd.