Why are Republicans so dense?

It came to my attention last night, while driving home from a particularly trying night at work, that the GOP and its nominee-to-be Sen. John McCain have completely missed or squandered a HUGE opportunity to gain some early momentum in the '08 election.

While Hillary and Obama exchange hits over racism, sexism and class warfare, both are selling "national health care" as a cornerstone of their campaigns. Neither can give details of how it will be structured or who is going to pay for it... but both are selling it.

Last night one of the conservative pundits on Patriot 144 played a clip of McCain (weeks old, I believe) where he briefly explained HIS plans for health care reform. I was intrigued, so I got home and did some research of my own.

The plan McCain seems to want to endorse is simply a bill that will allow ALL costs associated with health care AND insurance coverage to be 100%, no minimum or maximum, deductible from your income taxes. At first I thought that this wasn't much more than we have now... but let's think about that a second.

I can't deduct the cost of my insurance unless I am self-insured AND my personal expenses exceed $5,700 a year (that's just insurance costs... not co-pays or extra-coverage expenses). Now, my current insurance plan (family coverage) at the casino is costing me just under $800 a year (yes, the joint has great benefits). Over the last calendar year, I haven't wracked up any co-pays or uninsured expenses, so this pretty much leaves me out in the cold as far as deductibles go, under the current tax code.

BUT, if McCain's plan (for lack of a better title) were to be the law of the land, then the $830 check I just wrote for the 15 year-old's braces would be deductible, as would the $2,500 in therapy that the 13-year-old is getting (he has a pre-existing developmental condition that requires the treatment), the $1,100 we have paid in prescription costs over the last 12 months (out of pocket, mind you), and any other incidentals associated with health care that I simply haven't thought of yet.

That's $5,230 in additional deductions that I could take at the end of the year... just off the top of my head. I think that this relief alone would damn-near be enough of a tax-cut to justify the GOP's whole-hearted support of McCain, regardless of past liberal-minded mistakes.

Why isn't this plan being sold at every single stump-stop or campaign speech McCain is giving? Why do I have to research the plan myself? This kills a BUNCH of birds with one stone... making health care more affordable, tax relief, less pressure on the doctor's running small businesses and trying to make it in and industry that is being strangled by insurance premiums (lest we forget, Dr.'s need insurance too, as do their employees), and those "outside" of the system no longer have as great an ability to "ride" the system with no expenses of their own (meaning unregistered, illegal aliens).

Now, I know this won't eliminate the cost of illegals gaining health care completely, but if those with welfare-coverage that entails a co-pay or some kind of out-of-pocket expense and the AREN'T filing 1040's at the end of the year, they do not recoup the cost.

Even more importantly, THIS kind of cost relief has an added benefit that NO ONE seems to see...

If you think of the relief as increasing proportionally to how much you spend on health care, than the more you GO to a doctor, the more you get back in deductibles at the end of the year. We, here in my family in NEPA, can gain almost as much in deductions from THIS plan as we do from deducting the interest on our house! The general population is encouraged to spend more at the doctor's office (at least in co-pays and insurance deductibles) and the cost of coverage suddenly doesn't factor into their budget as painfully as it does now... that cost is seen just like a house note versus rent. There's no deduction for rent, but a big part of your house note is deductible.

Where is the downside to THIS? It can be called a "tax cut" if the GOP insists, and it is, but this could be sold to a nation fascinated with Obama "mania" and Hillary "watching" (whether you are a subscriber or not) as HEALTH CARE REFORM and coul dhave a huge impact on McCain and the GOP's image in the upcoming election.