The GOP health care reform plan.
Is cutting taxes the only policy solution Republicans have for any issue at all?
Pretty much.
WASHINGTON -- A large group of House conservatives intends to unveil legislation providing an expanded tax break for consumers who purchase their own health coverage and increasing the government funding for high-risk pools, according to lawmakers who said the plan marked the Republicans' first comprehensive alternative to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Under the proposal endorsed by the Republican Study Committee, individuals who purchase coverage approved for sale in their state could claim a deduction of $7,500 against their income and payroll taxes, regardless of the cost of the insurance. Families could deduct $20,000.
To be fair, they include all the other non-reform reforms they've been rehashing for years—tort reform, buying insurance across state lines, high-risk pools—all the things that don't actually don't do anything to address the real problem in our health care system: the increasing, systemic cost of health care. But they don't include any provision for lower-income people to purchase affordable insurance. They don't include any of the popular Obamacare provisions, like young adults being able to stay on their parents' plan or an end to lifetime limits on what insurance will pay.
So what they've really got is tax cuts, as usual. But at least this time they'll be for the middle class, too. So, progress?