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Remember back when the Republicans were complaining a lot about President Obama's budget, then unveiled a budget of their own that was lacking only one thing: numbers?

Well, those rascally Republicans are at it again. Now they've released a health care reform proposal that is lacking only one thing: reform.

The Republican proposal won't ensure insure significantly more people (leaving about 52 million Americans uninsured by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office). It doesn't prevent insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. Oh, and it doesn't lower the deficit as much as the Democratic plan.

As Matthew Yglesias summed it up, the GOP has come up with a plan that "works better for people who don't need health care services, and much worse for people who actually are sick or who become sick in the future. It's basically a health un-insurance policy."

It's health care benefits sign-up time around here at the RT, where we're still lucky enough to have them, and the talk this year is of edging toward plans that are less costly for people who do what they can to stay healthy. The emphasis is on preventive care: wellness checkups, smoking cessation -- maybe someday a person's BMI, or body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Uh-oh.

That, I suppose, is why I had a more than passing interest in a story that ran last week in USA Today: A then-and-now survey of New York City diners showed that the city's pioneering menu-labeling law (which since March 2008 has required chain restaurants to display the number of calories in their menu offerings) has helped the willing cut down. I say the willing because a little more than half the people surveyed said they saw the calorie postings, but only 15 percent said they actually used the information.

Still, those who did bought food that averaged 754 calories for lunch in 2009, compared to 860 calories for those who didn't see the information or ignored it. "The overall calories purchased decreased at nine chains between 2007 and 2009," the newspaper reported, "including dropping significantly at McDonald's, Au Bon Pain, KFC and Starbucks."

The findings are more hopeful than an earlier and much smaller study that suggested that people who noticed the calories and took them into account said they made healthier choices, but actually made worse ones.

Yeow. If only just wanting to could change us.

Carilion Clinic appears to have taken criticism about its bad debt policies to heart. After a Roanoke Times article last year detailed Carilion's extensive efforts to collect unpaid medical bills even from patients who should have qualified for charity care, the nonprofit hospital appears to have re-examined its policies and looked for better ways to provide for those who can't afford care while collecting from those who can.

In an editorial for later in the week, we'll praise those changes.

The Tea Party planned a huge "flash mob" today to protest the rollout of the new health care reform bill by House Democrats.

It didn't turn out quite as planned. About 10 protesters showed up, according to Talking Points Memo. As one participant said, "If this is organized, we suck."

I don't know whether to be grateful or not for an item posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch offering assurance that the flu doesn't have to scare off trick-or-treaters this Halloween. It hadn't occurred to me to regard the little ghosties and ghoulies as a real threat this year, but it should have, given the early flu season and the reported ease with which the H1N1 virus is transmitted between humans. So, to open the door to the kids, and maybe a case of the flu, or not? I'm going to risk it, but follow safety tip No. 1: drop the candy in the bag; avoid direct contract with the visiting humans. Assuming they are humans.

We can't afford to fail on health care reform

Tom Joyce

Joyce, of Hardy, is a retired information technology office director for the federal government.

We must reform health care and health insurance in America to increase the length of life and improve the quality of life in America and to prevent the collapse of our economy that will surely happen if we fail to act. The clock is ticking.

The current health care system in the United States for the uninsured is unworthy of this great nation. In the U.S., the world's richest country, many sick people who can't pay stay sick or die.

Read more.

When told that health care reform looks like a "train leaving the station with President Obama at the wheel," recently on Fox News, GOP Chairman Michael Steele responded, "I'm the cow on the tracks. You're gonna have to stop that train to get this cow off the track to move forward."

Apparently, Steele isn't too familiar with what happens to cows that go head-to-head with trains.

Follow this link for an example. The video itself isn't graphic, but there is some bad language from the engineer.

Wednesday, we'll laud Virginia Tech for its management of an international resource management project that won a Nobel for one of its researchers, and applaud the university's success in winning a multimillion-dollar federal grant for the university's bioinformatics institute. Both are pointed reminders of the important role research has to play in the lives of ordinary people, and the wisdom of investing in it.

Want to take dry policy discussion and make it listenable? Give it a beat, and subject it to an iPhone app that lets anyone sound like T-Pain.

Watch:

A few days ago, I put up a post about a recent David Brooks' column lamenting that the far-right wing of the Republican Party wields more influence than it deserves. The Limbaugh-Hannity-Beck wing of the party is loud, but small.

Here's some more validation of that theory: Despite all the braying about death panels and a government takeover, health care reform remains very popular. In fact, a public option, among the most contested portion of reform by the far right, enjoys a nearly 2-1 advantage according to a recent poll. Sixty-one percent of those polled favor a government-run insurance option while only 34 percent oppose it.

The rabid outcry from some in the Republican Party is winning few converts. As Washington Monthly's Steve Benen summed up the poll results: "Only 25% approve of the job congressional Republicans are doing; 25% have a favorable opinion of the GOP; 29% believe Republicans are acting in good faith; and 31% trust the GOP to handle health care (16 points lower than the president)."

Benen used those numbers to ridicule Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, House Minority Whip, for his unsupportable statement that a public option "has been resoundingly rejected by the American people." No, it's been resoundingly rejected by an incredibly small portion of the American people, who by their obstinate behavior and unwillingness to engage in rational discussion, are increasingly becoming irrelevant.