John Cornyn told reporters at the Republican National Convention, "There's no reason today to have health insurance policies tied to employers."

Most Americans obtain their health insurance through their employer. But skyrocketing costs have already made it difficult for employers to offer, and employees to afford, benefits. The number of Americans with employer coverage dropped to 177.4 million in 2007, down from 179.4 million in 2000. The Cornyn scheme would eliminate the tax benefit that encourages employers to provide health coverage, destroying the employer-based system on which 11 million Texans (53 percent) rely. The Cornyn scheme would make Texas's uninsured problem even worse.

According to the Dallas Morning News blog, Cornyn is "stunned by how many people today won't take new jobs because they fear the policy at their new employer won't cover their chronic conditions."

"What's truly stunning is how out of touch with Texas families John Cornyn is. Not one single family would have greater access to health care under the Cornyn plan. It's a shame that in the state where 45% of the residents are uninsured for at least part of the year, John Cornyn tells  Texas families 'you're on your own' with the insurance companies," said Martine Apodaca. "Cornyn thinks forcing Texas families to fend for themselves in the individual insurance market is better than the employer based health care system. But people don't choose to be sick like they choose to buy a car or a pair of shoes."

A census report released last week showed that Texas had the highest percentage (24.4 percent) of uninsured in the nation, comparing 3-year-average uninsured rates for 2005-2007.

"While John Cornyn is on the taxpayer subsidized Cadillac Health Care plan for Senators, record numbers of Texas families are uninsured. If Cornyn has his way, even more Texans will lose employer based coverage and Texans will be paying Cornyn's health tax every year. If Cornyn thinks McCain's healthy for the wealthy plan is so good, why not give back his taxpayer funded health insurance plan, reimburse taxpayers, and instead buy his own private insurance?" said Apodaca.

This isn't the first time Cornyn has shown Texans how out of touch he is on health care. Last month, John Cornyn told the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club that Texas should be a national model for improving access to health care. Lisa Falkenberg noted in the Houston Chronicle, "If Texas is a model, the crisis in this country is deeper than any of us realize."

Earlier this summer, the Texas Medical Association unendorsed Cornyn for his deciding vote against granting an 18-month reprieve from the 10.6-percent Medicare physician payment cuts. According to the Texas Medical Association, 58 percent of Texas physicians would have no choice but to limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat. Cornyn was later shamed into changing his vote.

[The following an an excellent piece by CNN's Jack Cafferty. You can read the original here.]

Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.

His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.

Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. Why not?

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day.

He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.