Weekend at Bernie Sanders is rising on individual donations. He is not taking in the same level of money as Hillary Clinton, but the groundswell of support will make him formidable in the early primary states.
In his last week fundraising push, Sanders touts single-payer health care as the saving element for the American burdened by rising, exorbitant health care costs.
He is really trying to buy labor votes and establish himself as the left-wing foil to corporate crony Hillary Clinton.
Sanders' latest eblast begins with the following tired screed for "health care as a universal right" blah, blah, blah:
Sisters and
Brothers -
That is the language of labor unions, trying to impose a flawed impression that the collectivism of the Left creates a different kind of family. Not a chance.
I want to talk
with you about one of the very real differences between Secretary Clinton and
me that surfaced during last weekend's debate, and that is our approach to
health care in this country.
Yes, I am not Hillary Clinton. Really? His staff seized emails and Internet data, and Clinton as Secretary of State violated the classified status of her electronic communications with two email servers, plus lying about it to cover herself.
I was, and all
progressives should be, deeply disappointed in some of her attacks on a
Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system. The health insurance lobbyists and
big pharmaceutical companies try to make "national health care" sound
scary. It is not.
Yes, Clinton is a Big Government statist, bought and paid for by Big Business. Wall Street interests want the former First Lady, whom they know will keep the bailouts rolling out of Washington DC and flowing into their pockets.
In fact, a
large single-payer system already exists in the United States. It's called
Medicare and the people enrolled give it high marks. More importantly, it has
succeeded in providing near-universal coverage to Americans over age 65 in a
very cost-effective manner.
This baloney is patent nonsense. Medicare is a government subsidy, but thankfully nothing like a single-payer system. Men and women can still go to different hospitals, whether public or private, and there are still choices of doctors, however limited. The government does not control every facet every element of the health care industry.
So I want to go
over some facts with you and ask that you take action on this important issue:
Right now,
because of the gains made under the Affordable Care Act, 17 million people have
health care who did not before the law was passed. This is a good start, and
something we should be proud of. But we can do better.
Why does anyone read these lies with a straight face? Why does anyone still banter about single-payer universal healthcare? This terrible government program is driving many hard-working yet working-class people throughout the Western World to forego much needed health care, or wait in long lines and suffer.
The truth is,
it is a national disgrace that the United States is the only major country that
does not guarantee health care to all people as a right. Today, 29 million of
our sisters and brothers are without care. Not only are deductibles rising, but
the cost of prescription drugs is skyrocketing as well. There is a major crisis
in primary health care in the United States.
That's why our health care is much better than other countries, Bernie. Otherwise, we would all look like you, half-dead and carried around by someone else.
So I start my
approach to health care from two very simple premises:
1. Health care
must be recognized as a right, not a privilege -- every man, woman and child in
our country should be able to access quality care regardless of their income.
Making something a right does not make it more readily available. Declaring something a right does not manifest a greater supply of something, of anything. US Senator Rand Paul was correct when he declared that forcing health care practitioners to offer their services would become another form of slavery. Everyone would be enslaved to a sclerotic bureaucracy peddling long waits of palliative care instead of long-term cures.
2. We must
create a national system to provide care for every single American in the most
cost-effective way possible.
Such a system already exists, and would prosper if the government would just get out of the way. It's called the Free Market.
I expected to
take some heat on these fundamental beliefs during a general election, but
since it is already happening in the Democratic primary, I want to address some
of the critiques made by Secretary Clinton and Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street
Journal directly:
Under my plan,
we will lower the cost of health care for the average family making $50,000 a
year by nearly $5,000 a year. It is unfair to say simply how much more a
program will cost without letting people know we are doing away with the cost
of private insurance and that the middle class will be paying substantially
less for health care under a single-payer system than Hillary Clinton's
program. Attacking the cost of the plan without acknowledging the bottom-line
savings is the way Republicans have attacked this idea for decades. Taking that
approach in a Democratic Primary undermines the hard work of so many who have
fought to guarantee health care as a right in this country, and it hurts our
prospects for achieving that goal in the near future. I hope that it stops.
Let me also be
clear that a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system will expand
employment by lifting a major financial weight off of the businesses burdened by
employee health expenses. And for the millions of Americans who are currently
in jobs they don't like but must stay put because of health care access, they
would be free to explore more productive opportunities as they desire.
So, what is
stopping us from guaranteeing free, quality health care as a basic fundamental
right for all Americans? I believe the answer ties into campaign finance
reform.
The truth is,
the insurance companies and the drug companies are bribing the United States
Congress.
Now, I don't go
around asking millionaires and billionaires for money. You know that. I don't
think I'm going to get a whole lot of contributions from the health care and
pharmaceutical industries. I don't like to kick a man when he is down, but when
some bad actors have tried to contribute to our campaign, like the
pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli who jacked up the price of a life saving drug
for AIDS patients, I donated his contribution to an AIDS clinic in Washington,
D.C.
The reason why companies can jack up their rates is that government infiltration has stifled competition and innovation.
Secretary
Clinton, on the other hand, has received millions of dollars from the health
care and pharmaceutical industries, a number that is sure to rise as time goes
on. Since 1998, there are no industries that have spent more money to influence
legislators than these two. Billions of dollars! An absolutely obscene amount
of money. And in this election cycle alone, Secretary Clinton has raised more
money from the health care industry than did the top 3 Republicans -- combined.
Now, and let's
not be naive about this, maybe they are dumb and don't know what they are going
to get? But I don't think that's the case, and I don't believe you do either.
More reasons not to vote for Hillary. So glad that someone is taking hits at Clinton, besides a few of the front-runner Republicans.
So, what can we
do about it?
Changing the
health care laws in this country in such a way that guarantees health care as a
right and not a privilege will require nothing short of a political revolution.
That's what this campaign is about and it is work we must continue long after I
am elected the next President of the United States.
Health is not a right, no more than health care is a right. Health is a choice based on responsibilities.
And because of
the success we have enjoyed so far, I am more convinced today than ever before
that universal quality health care as a right for all Americans will eventually
become the law of the land.
It is the only
way forward.
Thank you for
standing with me on this important issue.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
In solidarity - another hollow union term, as though every human being is part of one big happy family, and Big Daddy Government will take care of us.
Big Daddy turns into Big Brother really quickly, and that hand of care will become a boot in our faces forever if We the People do not loudly and clearly rejected socialism, especially single-payer health care.
