Neither of my sisters is a big Internet user, so I’m unsure who is actually reading this blog. Nonetheless, even if you’re a casual observer, you’ll note that I don’t file that often.

I am going to change that trajectory, however, by committing to post at least twice each week. Like any good Washington pundit, I will write even when I have nothing to say.

One of the benefits of renewing my blogging efforts is that it gives me a chance to look through my notes for quotes I haven’t used in other stories.

Today, the orphaned notes center on health care. Much has been made of how last fall’s Democratic takeover of Congress will change the landscape for health care policy. The demise of the Republican majority has made Capitol Hill safe for liberal plans to institute a single-payer, government-run health care system.

Well, not quite. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said to a group of reporters in May, “We are on the path toward major health care reform in future years.”

But that overhaul will not involve putting government in charge, according to the influential Baucus. He was careful to delineate between a universal and a single-payer system. “They’re two entirely different concepts,” he said.

OK, you might say, that’s what a conservative Democrat has to say. What about those farther to the left on the political spectrum?

Like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, for instance? Wyden, who has written legislation that would mandate individual coverage financed in part by employers, cited a recent Oregon vote against a single-payer system.

“It’s more government than Americans want,” he said in a May press conference.

And, so far, other than Rep. Dennis Kucinich, no Democratic presidential candidate has advocated a government-run health care system. Government-influenced, yes. Requirements on employers to provide or finance coverage, yes. But there’s no hint yet of a government takeover.

So, Republicans may be down, but their ideas about limiting the government role in health care aren’t out. It looks as if those ideas woven into the fabric of the debate—a reality that Michael Moore will eventually have to accept.

The problem, of course, is that Republicans likely will overplay their hand with breathless warnings about Hillarycare—an ill-defined bogeyman—that make average Americans struggling to pay premiums and co-pays wonder whether the GOP cares about their plight.