Republicans blew their biggest opportunity of the new Congress.

Two weeks into the Republican led House of Representatives, the American people should have expected a slightly more progressive approach than what we’ve seen in the past. That did not happen.

We all know that for weeks, Republicans advertised their plan to attempt to repeal last year’s health care reform, the Affordable Care Act. However, with last week’s shooting in Tucson and President Obama’s speech about changing the climate and the way politics are done, it appeared that people were going to approach things differently on the Hill and be a little more straight up with regards to policy.

After all, Democrats in the Senate made it clear they were not going to allow this repeal bill to even get within their eyesight, and public support for repeal seemed to be dropping at rapid speeds since last week. But Wednesday afternoon, the House went to work and went ahead with their plan to repeal health care before next week’s State of the Union Address.

It’s as if it was the only thing written on the Republican agenda and no one had any other ideas for “Task Number One."

Nobody wanted to talk about jobs, nobody wanted to talk about defense spending, nobody wanted to do anything except spend the week grandstanding with a piece of legislation that will never pass.

What is most disappointing is the fact that Republicans still haven’t learned their lesson from last year’s health care debate.

When the President pushed for Congress to come together and come up with a new health care plan, Republicans folded their arms and pouted. They refused to play a role in the construction of the new laws despite the fact that some Republicans actually came up with “Obamacare” before Obama.

Democrats went ahead and put together a plan that they believed would benefit the people and work to getting as much coverage around the country as possible. Republicans did nothing and offered nothing, thus they got nothing when credit was due.

Déjà vu, the GOP wants to repeal the health care in its current form but don’t want to bring anything new to the table, proof that they have no plan other than to make it look like they have a plan.

President Obama has stated he is looking forward to working with both sides of the isle to make changes to health care reform and still, no one has brought anything to the table. It would appear as if Republicans want to repeal this law and leave things the way they were prior to March 23 of last year.

It’s is highly irresponsible and arrogant to believe what’s best for us is to rewind things to the way they were and then say, “Trust us, we’ll fix it.” Everyone that works has heard that you don’t quit your job without another job on deck and sports fans know you don’t fire your coach without a replacement on board.

Yet, the United States Congress thinks it’s a bright idea to repeal the current health care laws and then spend the rest of their term jotting down ideas for new reform and no timeline to move the process along, we just have to take their word that it will get done.

With the 2012 Election around the corner, Republicans need to prove what they campaigned on is true, that they know what is best for the country and will work to make things better. This week was the first opportunity and they failed miserably.