The GOP -- The Unserious Party

When it comes to responsible governing, the GOP can't do it when they're in power. And when they're out of power, they don't want anyone else to do it.

Now that health care issues are on the table, you'd think this would be the time for some serious debate and discussion, maybe some reasonable perspective from the loyal opposition. O that we had one!

Instead the Republicans are irresponsible misfits, vandals.

The Republicans hate Medicare. Always have, always will. But now they're even posing as Medicare's defenders. Their lying and hypocrisy have no bounds. They're making it up as they go along, anything to stick it to Obama, and by extension, the rest of us.

Fortunately, a lot of people have the GOP's number. According to the Wall Street Journal, the AARP welcomed the Republicans' commitment to protect medicare, but dismissed their statement on the subject as misleading and alarmist.

John Rother, their executive vice president, said "the proposed Medicare savings do not limit benefits, they do not impose rationing and they do not put the government between patients and their doctors." So there! There's a disconnect between what the Republicans say and what is the reality.

Mr. Rother said that AARP was frustrated by the lack of concrete proposals being put forward on the Republican side of the debate. "The debate as I see it doesn't even focus on health care," Mr. Rother said. "It is all about the role of government and the importance of the federal deficit."

The Journal article notes the great irony in all this, that Medicare is the government's largest health care program and those lining up to "defend" Medicare are against government's involvement in health care.