FIRST, those crazy Democrats still drunk with power following the 2008 elections and Arlen Specter's decision to give them a filibuster proof super-majority ... decided that they didn't "need no Republicans" to pass a Health Care Reform their socialist special interests masters would love ... So, they completely shut out Republicans from the discussion of crafting the Health Care Reform Legislation
(SIDENOTE: Before you buy into the Republicans are partisan hacks focusing on their own good at the expense of the country line from the Left in Washington, remember that the Senate Republican Caucus includes the likes of Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, George Voinovich, Lindsey Graham, Lamar Alexander, Dick Lugar, John McCain, Bob Corker, Johnny Isakson, even Judd Gregg who was offered and initially accepted a position in the Obama Administration(!!). These are men and women who compose 25% of the Republican Caucus and (usually to the extreme disappointment of those of us on the Right) have a loooooong collective history of working with Democrats on bipartisan legislation.)