Why is National Health Care so Difficult for Republicans?

I will confess that watching the Republicans struggle with repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has been one of the most amusing political events I have ever observed.  It is not that Republicans are stupid.  Nor is it that these events are without serious consequence.  It is that they are attempting to accomplish something that is totally outside their nature to accomplish.  Hence the twists and turns, and dead ends, and wringing of hands, and overall angst about the notion of a Republican Health Care Plan.  Such a plan is the equivalent of a Hulk School of Charm or of a James Bond Monogamy Seminar or an Elon Musk Improved Internal Combustion Engine.  Such efforts are just the antithesis of their nature, so any and all efforts are just, well, funny.  The very phrase, Republican Health Care Plan or a Trump Health Care Plan is so oxymoronic that I giggle and squirm and miss George Carlin very much.

Republicans do not believe that the government should provide anything to our citizens much beyond military protection.  They do not believe in regulating business for the purpose of worker safety, they do not believe in monitoring our environment to eliminate hazards and long-term negative impact, they do not believe in monitoring our food and water for safe consumption, they do not believe in earned governmental benefits like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.  They do not believe in food subsidies for the hungry.  They do not believe in public education for the masses.  They do not believe in government providing anything other than the fertile ground on which money can be made.  So to task a group with this mindset to design and develop a national health care plan that may actually help many of our citizens is an impossible task for them.  They cannot do it without hurting someone because they do not believe they can or should help anyone.

It was oh so easy to attack the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as they called it.  It was a boondoggle, a government giveaway, an organizational disaster, harmful to the wealthy insurance companies and more limiting for the very wealthy medical practitioners and hospitals; something that never should have happened, etc., etc.  It was oh so easy to promise to repeal this act and replace it with something better.  But now that they have won control of the Executive and Legislative branches of our government and have set their sights on controlling the Judicial branch, they are flat stuck.  How in the world could folks with this belief system ever develop a program that will help those who need it the most?  So we hear crazy talk like cut food stamps to fund health care, cut social security or Medicare or Medicaid to fund health care, etc.  In other words, they only way they can imagine providing a service or a safety net for American citizens is to take away another service or safety net.  If they can do so and have a net sum zero game, maybe they can convince the most conservative among us that they have fulfilled their campaign promise.

And I roll and giggle.

Give it up guys and gals.  You are not capable of accomplishing your commitment.  You can develop a plan that hurts everyone, and especially hurts those who need support the most, but it is impossible for you to conceive of universal health care for the citizens of the United States.  The best you could do is hire a bunch of Democrats to write the plan for you and then get behind it.  Oh yeah, we tried that once and you did not get behind it.  No worries, your own health care will be provided for you and you will not suffer from your inability to provide such a service to others.  You are safe for now.