Chaffetz: Americans may have to choose between new phone, health insurance https://t.co/G7TUtuLrrl pic.twitter.com/qA4PvGXlps
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 7, 2017
This is the kind of thing which embodies everything about modern conservatives - a failure to understand the price/cost of anything, a failure to understand what people need to exist in contemporary society, and the belief the newfangled gagdgets are like the mythical welfare queen Cadillacs of yesteryear.
A new phone high end phone costs 500-800 bucks. If I could buy health insurance (Real, not bullshit) for my family for that I'd happily give up my new phone. Of course, the two years ago high end model phone costs $200. The somewhat shittier and not quite latest and greatest can probably be had for 50 bucks. Your older brother can probably give you a handmedown for free. So, phones are not really that expensive (service is in the US because of our shitty noncompetitive market and lax regulation, go to Yurp and pay 20 bucks per month max). Also they're the only way lots of people have regular internet access, so they're pretty much necessary. Smartphones are not luxury items, they're required.
But, hey, let everyone buy health insurance for the cost of a new iPhone. I'm on board with that! Put it in the Dem platform.