Reply #1: Well said. [View All]

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

And I would also add that Republicans oppose any major changes in health care because they ascribe to an ideology that holds that profit is always a good thing, and therefore we should not take away or impair in any way the ability of health insurers to make a profit. They also do not believe anyone has a right to medical treatment or that government has any obligation to provide them with any help in getting it, consistent with the fact that Republicans have always been against "welfare" in all of its forms. This goes back to the first principle, which is that profit is always good. A corollary to this is that anything that takes away from profit (i.e., taxes) is always bad. In order to provide health care or any other kind of public welfare you have to impose taxes. Taxes cut into profits. Therefore taxes are bad, and to justify this point they claim that cutting taxes, always, for any reason, will always benefit the economy, which it doesn't and never has.

And as a practical matter, specific to the point that Republicans want a tax cut so people can buy their own insurance, it's stupid on its face because if you don't have a job in the first place, a tax cut is the least of your worries because you have no income to tax. And, of course, the people most desperately in need of health care and who can't get it at all are the unemployed.