Thursday, January 25, 2007

Cut to the Quick

Colbert gets it right:

Stephen Colbert: What made [Tuesday's State of the Union speech] so groundbreaking, I think, was all the new stuff we've never heard from the president before...like a domestic agenda. Take his proposal to fix the whole health care mess with the only proven cure-all: tax breaks...

Bush clip: And for the millions of Americans with no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within reach.

Colbert: It's so simple. Most people who couldn’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But...if you give them a deduction from their taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they're not getting back from what they haven't given to buy the health care they can't afford.

2 comments:

Brian Dunbar said...

Most people who couldn’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes.

There is poor and poor. Some of those folks are like a few of my friends - in their 20s, young, job-hopping. They all could afford (with one exception) to buy their own but they choose not to.

I wonder if it's not possible to sell these guys 'n gals on the idea of health insurance but allow them to float when they are between jobs.

It's not that I don't want everyone to have health insurance I just don't trust the government to do it right. I wonder why that is ...

And yes private insurance companies don't have a stellar record either.

MAH said...

Yeah, I agree. I knew a guy who had taken the risk of going uninsured (early 30s, seemingly bright), got a minor injury and was astonished at the cost of an emergency room visit.

I certainly dont trust the government to do it, vut something like the Massachusetts might be an improvement.
I certainly give the current administration kudos for thinking out of the box on this one.