Chuck Muth: It's a new year, but the same ol' liberal complaints

Dr. Eugene Paslov - fellow columnist and former Nevada superintendent of Nevada's failed public schools - inked a screed for the Appeal last weekend which began thusly: "The Congressional Republicans are getting ugly. They refuse to do what they were elected to do - negotiate, compromise and implement legislation."

O.M.G. And some people still wonder why the kids coming out of Gene's beloved government-run education camps don't know spit from spam when it comes to U.S. history and civics?

Here, in fact, is what members of Congress are elected to do, as per their Oath of Office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

And as the ObamaCare health reform bill Sen. Harry Reid and his Democrat accomplices are trying to shove down our throats is clearly unconstitutional, it is the sworn duty of each and every Republican member of Congress to oppose it with every fiber of their being.

Yet according to Gene such Republicans are, and I quote, "on the lunatic fringe of politics," adding that he hopes the "citizens of this country and of our state will vote the 'party of no' out of office."

Only in the minds of aging New Deal and Great Society liberals could honoring one's Oath of Office be considered "on the lunatic fringe." And as for being the "party of no," Republicans are simply doing what far more parents ought to be doing: Saying no when saying no is the right thing to do.

Finally, Doctor P complains that Republicans "made no contributions to improve the bill."

Which is sort of like complaining that no one offered to put ketchup on a manure sandwich.

That said, when it comes to alternative health reform proposals, it's simply not true that the right has been AWOL. A free-market alternative to the Democrats' government solution - the Consumer Choice Health Security Act - was introduced by Republicans way back in 1994 and updated since.

More recently, numerous conservative alternatives have been proposed by the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org), the Cato Institute (www.cato.org) and the Galen Institute (www.galen.org).

In addition, conservative House members of the Republican Study Committee have introduced no less than 38 separate bills this session promoting alternatives to the Obama/Reid/Pelosi government health care proposal. Thirty. Eight.

So the problem isn't that there aren't conservative ideas and alternatives out there; the problem is there aren't enough conservatives in Congress to push these ideas forward. That's why conservatives today are focused on saying "no" to the bad, unconstitutional Democrat proposals rather than passing their own good ones.

And despite what Gene Paslov may think, say, write or do - that's exactly what their jobs are.

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy grassroots advocacy organization. He may be reached at chuck@citizenoutreach.com.