This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

[Video: See. I told you Stephen Colbert would be all over the new Republican health care plan. And that he couldn't do that without taking a good whack at Jason "Captain of the bad team from 'The Mighty Ducks' Chaffetz. The whole monologue is great, but the Chaffetz bit starts at about 5:30.]

A Facebook friend writes:

"You'd think the kind of guy who resents having to give free stuff to 'poorer Americans' would be strongly in favor said Americans investing in single, portable item that delivers access to education and information, to the contemporary world's equivalent of the 'want ads,' and a stable point of contact via email, text and voice to someone who may have no other stability in life; heck, making them reachable by employers!

Apparently Mr Chaffetz simultaneously fails to understand health care, poverty and networked technology. Quite the trifecta!"

Chaffetz says poor people should forgo iPhones to pay for health care — Matt Canhan and Courtney Tanner | The Salt Lake Tribune

" ... Chase Thomas, policy and advocacy counsel for the Alliance for a Better Utah, said the congressman doesn't understand the actual choices poorer Americans face.

" 'If low-income families become uninsured, it is not because of their decision to buy a phone — it will be because Congress is forcing them to decide between buying insurance, putting food on the table or paying the rent,' he said. 'We hope Rep. Chaffetz sleeps well at night with his iPhone and Apple Watch on his nightstand, while millions of Americans now live under the threat of their affordable health care soon becoming less affordable or unattainable.'..."

" ... Kathryn Allen, a Democrat looking into a long-shot bid to unseat Chaffetz, has a Crowdpac fundraising page that's been flooded with pledges of campaign cash since the Utah congressman's gaffe spread across the web. Allen raised $40,000 in just a day — and broke a record on the political fundraising platform Crowdpac. ..."

" ... I'm sure plenty of people would be happy to go without 8 or 14 or 60 iPhones each year if doing so would ensure that they could cover healthcare for their family. Maybe that's because I remember that it's not iPhones that people give up over healthcare costs. It's entire houses, livelihoods and life savings. Given that Chaffetz sees healthcare and iPhones as an even trade, I wonder which of these two taxpayer-funded perks he'd be willing to give up first. ..."

" ... Among those standing in opposition? Utah's Mike Lee. The senator sees his party's plan as too similar to Obamacare and slams it as a rushed and ineffective compromise forged without public input. With a slim Republican majority in the Senate and assured pushback from Democrats, Lee's vote could be key. ..."

The Republican health-care plan's top critics? Republicans. — Dana Milbank | The Washington Post

" ... Democrats, predictably, panned it because it's a cheap knockoff of Obamacare, and they prefer the original over imitators. The bigger problem for GOP leaders is that conservatives also panned it because, well, it's a cheap knockoff of Obamacare. ..."

An Obamacare repeal that's both heartless and reckless — Washington Post Editorial

"The American Health Care Act, which House Republicans unveiled Monday night with White House support, is repeal and replace, kind of. It has some suspicious similarities to Obamacare. But it marks a sharp departure in at least one crucial respect: fiscal responsibility. ..."

The Republican plan is even worse than Obamacare — Megan McArdle | Bloomberg View

" ... It's tempting to blame short-sighted Republican leadership, so focused on getting a point on the board that they're not considering whether the sacrifices they need to get that point might end up costing them the game. But it's not even clear that this scores any short-term political points. ..."

GOP gimmick on repealing Obamacare is to ignore the math — Albert R. Hunt | Bloomberg View

They promised better insurance. They can't deliver. Now the jig is up.

" ... The bill aims to take a wrecking ball to the principle of universal coverage. If enacted, millions more Americans would end up without any health care. For many people who purchase individual policies, especially older people, it promises fewer services for more money. And it also proposes a big tax cut for the rich, which would be financed by slashing Medicaid, the federal program that provides health care to low-income people. ..."

No Wonder the Republicans Hid the Health Bill — New York Times Editorial

"Republican House leaders have spent months dodging questions about how they would replace the Affordable Care Act with a better law, and went so far as to hide the draft of their plan from other lawmakers. No wonder. The bill they released on Monday would kick millions of people off the coverage they currently have. So much for President Trump's big campaign promise: 'We're going to have insurance for everybody' — with coverage that would be 'much less expensive and much better.'..."

Why Republicans Can't Do Health Care — Ross Douthat | The New York Times

" ... But in fairness to its designers, there was no bill that could have united all of the right's disparate factions, because on health care policy, as on a range of issues, the Republican Party as an organism does not know what it believes in anymore. ..."