At least one Republican congressman wants Americans to choose between an iPhone and health care. While attempting to defend Republicans' Affordable Care Act replacement plan on Tuesday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah suggested to CNN's Alisyn Camerota that Americans are obligated to invest in their own coverage.
"You know what? Americans have choices," Chaffetz said when Camerota pointed out that access doesn't necessarily equal coverage. "And they've gotta make a choice. So maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they wanna go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care."
Chaffetz later attempted to ease off the phones-or-insurance throttle, stopping short of a full-on apology or anything resembling awareness. "What we're trying to say—and maybe I didn't say it as smoothly as I possibly could—but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance," he toldFox News. "They're going to have to make those decisions."
At least we can take some small comfort in the fact that Chaffetz's comparison of iPhones and health insurance, which doesn't make a lot of sense, was roundly mocked on Twitter by those more in tune with the realities of actual American life:
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Chaffetz, of course, is known for fuckeries of this caliber. Just last month, he was poetically met with a chorus of jeers and boos during a town hall in Salt Lake City:
