Bernie Sanders Sets a Trap

[paft.livejournal.com]

Senator Bernie Sanders:

I believe, many people in my own state believe, healthcare is a right – R.I.G.H.T. – regardless of income, that every American has the right to the best quality healthcare that the system can offer regardless of income, that if you’re a low income kid, you’re a wealthy kid, you have the same opportunity to access the healthcare system…

Senator Rand Paul: …that means you believe you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. That means you believe in slavery. It means you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses, if you have a right to their services, basically, once you imply a belief in the right to their services, do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have a right to food? You’re basically saying that you believe in slavery. You’re saying you believe in taking and extracting from another person… Do you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free healthcare would be…

It’s always a pleasure to watch someone like Bernie Sanders introducing a right wing libertarian like Rand Paul to reality. Randians like Paul often veer between two romantic poses. The first is the doe-eyed idealist who thinks the best of everyone (“Mercy sakes, nobody would actually allow someone to die just because they didn’t have enough money. Why, the doctors would do it for free, or the neighbors would take up a collection or something!”) The second – usually when the horrible consequences of their policies become evident – is the cigar-chomping, hard-eyed, square-jawed realist (“Yeah -- NEWSFLASH! -- kids die when their irresponsible parents can’t pay for their medical care. Suck it up, loser!”)

Sanders knew exactly what he was doing. He set the trap by invoking healthcare as a right, and Rand Paul blithely stepped into it, revealing not only his own disconnection from reality (Universal Healthcare = Slavery) but the horrifying moral emptiness of his worldview.

The answers to Paul's questions are, yes, we have a right to plumbing. Yes, we have a right to water. Yes, we have a right to food. We have a right to these things because we have a right to life, and without plumbing, food, and water, people die in large numbers from exposure to contaminated water, from malnutrition, from dehydration. As a physician, Rand Paul knows this.

Judging from what Paul has said here, that's the vision he has for the poor of America. Not just slums -- shantytowns.

Crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

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Comments

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Sure (http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/060924/2healy.htm).