Commentary: GOP, Blue Dog Democrats maybe a little bit crazy

Health care is a life or death problem facing our nation; it is also driving our nation's economics into oblivion.

We must solve it. Millions do not have any health insurance (46 million); 14,000 are losing their health insurance every day because of job loss. I heard recently that thousands of California school children are not being given necessary immunizations before starting school. The state is closing clinics and doesn't have money to match available federal funds. There is something dramatically wrong.

We are the richest, most powerful nation in the world and yet we are the only major power not providing universal health care for its citizens.

Congressional Republicans Sen. Jim Demint, R-S.C., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.) are encouraging their colleagues to oppose any health care plan because "failure will be the president's waterloo," and will presumably erode President Obama's popularity. This is bad politics and bad politics make bad public policy.

We have our own congressman, Dean Heller, who has voted "no" on most Obama Administration bills, sending a letter to President Obama suggesting that all federal employees be required to participate in any health care plan passed. Actually, the bill includes a public option plan, similar to the plan federal employees already have.

We are being inundated with TV ads featuring a Canadian woman indicating how she had to come to the United States to get medical care to save her life. She claims she was going to have to wait a year to get a critical test. I doubt it. Her story sounds contrived. The Republican National Committee is also sponsoring anti-health care ads using nasty scare tactics to try to kill the administration's bill. This is not an intelligent response. It sounds as though the ideological right are in charge of the RNC.

"Birthers," those who don't believe President Obama is a U.S. citizen (refusing to accept a legitimate Hawaiian birth certificate as proof), serve as political "deniers." Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs and their mindless ideological followers have declared the president's policies a "failure," as quickly as they were announced. No review, no analysis. These political "deniers" make no serious contributions to solving political problems like health care.

If responsible Republicans wish to regain respect and become a viable political force once again, they need to cast aside the "Party of No," those who have infected the GOP and emphasize the moderate, thoughtful principles that the GOP once stood for. I for one wish to encourage Republicans, Democrats and Independents to work together and give us a reasonable, universal health care system. Just saying "no" doesn't work for me.

• Dr. Eugene T. Paslov, former Nevada Superintendent of Schools, is a board member for Silver State Charter School.