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Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hillary Clinton: How Dare You Call Universal Health Care Socialized Medicine

Hillary goes off on a reporter at the National Association of Black Journalists Presidential Forum for daring to call socialized medicine...well...socialized medicine.

Video here.

What do you think she’s angry about more, that she’s essentially being called a socialist or that a black man dared wander off the liberal plantation to question her “we liberals know what’s best for you” policies?

A couple of choice quotes from the accompanying article.  First up, Hillary objecting to the “socialized medicine” label:

...the audience question came from a freelance writer named Kiara Ashanti, who wanted to know why the Democratic White House hopeful was pushing for, what he called, “socialized medicine.”

“Why are you still insisting upon moving that system in here when particularly it will hurt African American communities more than anyone else?” Ashanti asked.

“Oh, man – that was a string of misrepresentations about me and the systems in other countries,” Clinton began her response. “Number one, I have never advocated socialized medicine, and I hope all the journalists hear that loudly and clearly because that has been a right-wing attack on me for 15 years, and it is wrong.”

But, it’s not wrong.  The health care system Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats support consists of taking wealth from everyone (or, more accurately, the top 50% of wage-earners who pay all the taxes) and redistributing it to everyone in the form of medical care.  Wealth redistribution, put simply.  And what is socialism if not wealth redistribution?

That Hillary and her fellow populist commissar-wannabes find this label inconvenient for their political agendas is neither here nor there.

Next, Hillary backs up her support for socialized medicine by championing...Medicare:

“Do you think Medicare is socialized medicine?” she challenged him. “To a degree it is,” Ashanti said. “Well, then you are in a small minority in America because Medicare has literally saved the lives and saved the resources of countless generations of seniors in our country.”

Clinton went on to champion Medicare, but criticize the U.S. as the only “advanced country” to have “so many of its citizens without health care.” She punctuated her answer with a stinging, yet cordial invitation to Ashanti: “I don’t know who you are. But you come introduce yourself to my staff and we will try to give you some information if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical.”

I’m not sure why Hillary is shown as winning this debate.  She didn’t answer the guy’s question. All she did, basically, was call him stupid (or uneducated, to use her terminology) for not agreeing with her.

Regardless, I always have to chuckle when liberals hold up Medicare as an example of why we should have government-run medical care.  Because, really, Medicare is probably one of the best arguments against government-run medicine there is.

This year alone Medicare is expected to cost this country some $540 billion, a figure President Bush is “trimming”, according to the media, by dampening it’s growth from a projected 8.1% to 7.7% annually.  Meaning that we’ll still spend more than $540 billion on Medicaid next year and the year after that, just not as much more as previously projected.

Medicaid is also a gigantic expense for taxpayers, costing about $330 billion in 2005 alone, an amount that also, historically, grows at about a 7 - 8% yearly clip.

Together, Medicaid and Medicare represent a portion of our nation’s spending as a percentage of the GDP that is becoming enormous.  It is projected to actually outpace the growth in Social Security spending we’re all so worried about:

image

For a group of people who would like us to believe that spending on the war in Iraq is unsustainable, they sure don’t have any qualms about spiraling entitlement expenses which are constantly burdening American tax payers with more and more taxes.  Because to this observer, Medicare spending is unsustainable.

So know full well that when Hillary says she supports “universal health care” she has not a care about the gigantic, irresponsible expense it would represent for this country.

Comments

Hopefully she’ll keep talking and show everyone what an idiot she is before it comes down to the wire.

ews48 on August 9, 2007 at 09:59 pm

I feel bad for Mr Ashanti. Spending the night being interrogated by the Secret Service, then coming home to that IRS audit team ripping his home apart, his family being run through the mill. Boy, talk about fuck ups.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on August 10, 2007 at 05:41 am
Avatar for the wolf

That free health care sure is expensive.

the wolf on August 10, 2007 at 06:32 am
Avatar for elVaquero

ews48, you are so right, I hope she is the Dem candidate so she will keep talking and finish showing everyone with a brain what a full-blown SOCIALIST with Fascist tendencies she is before it comes down to the wire.
No matter how fractured the R/Conservatives, with Hill to run against even Gulianni could get elected!

elVaquero on August 10, 2007 at 09:02 am
Avatar for k_lunch

Clinton went on to champion Medicare, but criticize the U.S. as the only “advanced country” to have “so many of its citizens without health care.”

I would love for someone to point out to Hitlery that in Canada with their socialized medicine the hospitals are unionized which means the doctors can, and do, go on strike leaving patients to die in the halls.  I’m sure they’d rather have to make sacrifices to pay for the health care like they always have, versus that alternative.

k_lunch on August 10, 2007 at 09:37 am
Avatar for k_lunch

She punctuated her answer with a stinging, yet cordial invitation to Ashanti: “I don’t know who you are. But you come introduce yourself to my staff and we will try to give you some information if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical.”

Just curious if by that she meant she would be providing him with a copy of Michael Moore’s SiCKO.

k_lunch on August 10, 2007 at 09:40 am
Avatar for Crush Liberalism

Notice how, when Her Highness is rattling off countries that have socialized medicine (you know, the kind she says they don’t have?), she shrewdly omits Cuba?

Sure, the leftards reference Cuba all the time, even though everyone knows Cuban health care is in shambles (except for the tourist hospitals).  But more than that, she knows that speaking positively of Castro like her moonbat constituents do will bite her in her ample posterior come general election time.  Pretty slick, Hilldawg.

Crush Liberalism on August 10, 2007 at 10:00 am
Avatar for HG

This is the typical liberal argument.  Either intentionally or out of pure ignorance and notable lack of discernment, simple and obvious facts are uneccessarily complicated.  The confusion which follows is misunderstood as complexity prompting highly subjective solutions which, lacking facts, common sense and practicality, are excused as deep and intellectual.

To those who have any discernment whatsoever, this is blatant obfuscation.

HG on August 10, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Avatar for HG

As is typical with deceit, there is a smidgen of truth in this argument.  If we are to distinguish between “Universal” and “Socialized”, as could be inferred, then enforcing policy outside national boundaries would be more akin to authoritarianism on a global scale.  Obedience to such a global political system and authority could be a subtle way of acheiving control of all nation’s economic and natural resources.  Isn’t that what the far left has been accusing Capitalists of—empire-building?

If this is the case, “universal health-care” is far more sinister and destructive than “socialized health-care”.

HG on August 10, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Avatar for Mike Esposito, M.D.

While Hillary wants to set herself apart, she’s still part of the system. The system that is predicated on corporate profits and not the well being of the patient. The CEO’s of the large HMO’s and pharmaceutical companies have the same agenda as any other corporate leader. Raise their company’s stock price or lose their job which pays their obscene salary and bonus. Health care corporation’s focus is financial and they are not concerned with access to care or the quality of care their patients receive.

These same companies will push for tort reform because it limits their liability in medical malpractice lawsuits. They want to limit patient access, reduce their costs and not have any responsibility. The trial lawyers will not tolerate these unconstitutional limits and are fed by the victim’s misfortune. We have all heard the advertisements asking, “Has anything bad ever happened to you. Someone else should pay. Call us now. Time is running out.” How would they survive if they could only make a few hundred dollars an hour? (Assuming, of course, that they are not double billing). However, without these legal wolves patrolling the health care system even doctors would be in at risk to corporate domination.

Where does this leave the doctor? Right next to the patient in the over-crowded emergency room wondering how things have gotten so out of control.

Posted by Dr. Michael Esposito M.D.
Radiologist and Author of “Locked In,” a new medical thriller.
http://www.mikeespositomd.com

Mike Esposito, M.D. on August 27, 2007 at 10:46 pm

Doc, that was awful pretty. Don’t answer shit, but awful pretty to read. Now explain to us how turning control of the medical industry, and yes, you are merely part of an INDUSTRY, over to the Government is going to help anything. Do you actually expect the population to be happy with the VA running their medical care? Please tell me you are not this fucking stupid.

Socialism is an abject failure. Period. Full stop. You can spin fantasies of how wonderful the Socialist Workers Paradise will be, I have seen the results of socialism, hell, I’ve smelled and helped bury the results of your dream. No thanks.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on August 28, 2007 at 04:02 am
Avatar for JennyCat

An opinion I feel I have to voice amidst all these healthcare debates is the fact that while Medicare and Medicaid costs are indeed out of control, these insurance programs unfortunately are still leaving tons of costs and sometimes maddening stipulations on the patients so-called “covered” by these programs, as badly as privately purchased HMOs or sometimes worse. Seeking a doctor that actually accepts Medicare or Medicaid can be like panning for gold. Most senior citizens I know have found it necessary to not only utilize Medicare, but also purchase supplemental private insurance to be able to afford their healthcare and prescriptions. Of course, then there are the ones who cannot afford to supplement their Medicare or Medicaid, and end up not getting the treatment they fully need. Yet those government costs still spiral up and up.

JennyCat on February 23, 2008 at 04:32 pm
Avatar for Health insurance

If Hillary wins we are all in trouble. Socialized health care is not a good idea at all. Our taxes would increace and the care would not be the best. We would get cheap services and still pay a premium and out of pocket costs. She also wants to take away our rights by forceing us to pay the monthly premium. That is crazy! Health insurance is not the law and to be forced to pay it is wrong. Yes we need health insurance, but not directly from the government. We should fight for our right to choose our insurance company and coverage.

Health insurance on April 1, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Avatar for MRI Technician

Would it not be best if Hillary just kept her trap shut? Her liberal moronic thoughts make me sick. BTW dint she have a shot at fixing health care?

MRI Technician on October 12, 2008 at 07:23 pm
Avatar for MRI Technician

Would it not be best if Hillary just kept her trap shut? Her liberal moronic thoughts make me sick. BTW didnt she have a shot at fixing health care?

MRI Technician on October 12, 2008 at 07:25 pm
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