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The Man with a Plan

The Republican Party continues to be labeled by those in power as the “Party of No” and it is their own fault.  If I were them, I would do two things from a public relations standpoint.  First, fire my PR firm.  This outfit (if such a thing even exists) has not come up with a single creative idea to present the America public with actual alternatives to the Democrats’ “solutions”.  Indeed, the minority leaders have held their press conferences and posted to the web their reasoning for rejecting much of the legislation, but, let’s face it, most Americans would rather watch American Idol or Lost than some politician stand behind a podium and talk about policy.  In addition, the mainstream media, with the notable exception of Fox, is not spending much airtime or print space on what the Republicans are saying.  I would argue that were it not for conservative talk radio and Fox News, we would already have government-run healthcare WITH a public option.  Conservatives on radio have done an outstanding job of presenting the American people with the realities of the Democrats’ “solutions” and it has led to the very entertaining townhalls last summer as well as a grass roots movement (Tea, anyone?) that has helped to turn the political playing field on its ear.  I personally do not believe that the Republican Party on its own could have mustered enough fire in the belly of the common man to have slowed and possibly killed healthcare “reform” and Cap-and Trade.  The Republicans are lousy marketers and apparently they are incapable of hiring a firm that can fill this void.  The problem with the the public getting educated by talk radio and Fox News is that the broadcasters are not responsible for writing bills that could take the place of the lousy proposed legislation trying to be forced down our collective gullets today.  Which brings me to my second objective…

COME UP WITH AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN!  Now I do not mean to paint every Republican congressperson with a broad brush, but on the whole, the party had not created a simple yet effective alternative plan to stand behind in lieu of what the Democrats are pitching.  A few, Senator Coburn and Rep. Price to name a couple, have proposed alternative healthcare bills but almost no one in America knows it (see paragraph above for one reason why).  The Republican Party, as best as I can tell, has let these few brave souls fend for themselves in trying to get the message out about their plans.  There is no united front and certainly no effort to drag the Democrat proposal into the court of public opinion to face a well-thought out and easy to understand Republican alternative.  Why is this?  The Party obviously has some smart folks who have crafted ideas that could be cobbled together into a comprehensive plan that the Republicans could unite behind.  The genius of the Contract with America in 1994 was that the American people could clearly see what the Republicans stood for and how that contrasted against the Clinton & Democrat policies that they were unhappy with at that time.  Result?  Republicans shock the world by taking over the House in that election year for the first time in decades.  It also forced Clinton to move to the center and support policies that did some real good, specifically welfare reform and a balanced budget.

With that said, the Republicans do not need to roll out another “Contract with America”.  They need to be more creative and contemporary than that (hello, PR firm?).  How about coming up with a Roadmap for America’s Future?… What?… Someone already has done that?…Well look here, Representative Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) has already done it!  Rep. Ryan has gone so far as to devise a plan that addresses not only the healthcare issue in this country but tackles Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the tax code.  In short, Rep. Ryan has taken on the single biggest elephant in the room – our country’s fiscal future.  Ryan takes on the whole disease and not just the symptoms.  President Obama gave a shout-out to Ryan at a recent gathering for coming up with his plan.  Of course he doesn’t agree with it, but you wouldn’t expect him to.  In fact, the next day, the Democrat leadership rolled out a series of attacks on Ryan and the Roadmap.  The inherent risk of actually presenting a plan of your own is that the opposition gets to attack and smear it, but Paul Ryan should be admired for having the backbone to stick his neck and plan out there.  Surely, his fellow Republicans would have his back anyway in that fight…hmmm, well not exactly.  At last check, a total of six (6) co-sponsors were on the bill out of 178 Republicans in the House.  Minority Leader John Boehner even thought it was important to stress that Ryan’s plan was not THE Republican plan.  Wow, thanks for that, so could you show us the REAL Republican plan?  No?  Not one?  How about you get on that then.  I bet Ryan would even let you use his as a starting point if that wouldn’t be too much of a problem for you guys.  Sigh…maybe they will roll out one at the Summit tomorrow (breath not held).

Read Paul D. Ryan’s A Roadmap for America’s Future and make your own conclusions.  For my part, I will be visiting my Republican representative next week in Washington DC and asking him for his plan.  Me thinks he don’t have one.  If I find that to be the case, I shall find out his opinion of Mr. Ryan’s offering.  Should be good times…

In the meantime Republican Party, how about hiring the ad agency that peppered us during the Super Bowl with the Bud Light commercials or the group that came up with the ad that had Betty White getting de-cleated in the pick-up football game.  The American public could laugh and get educated at the same time!