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Hillary Clinton is Lying To You
By Bill | September 24, 2007 | Email This Post
Hillary Clinton unveiled her health care plan last week, in which she would make health insurance a mandatory purchase for all Americans. Our purposes here today are not to debate the merits of the plan; there will be a larger article at a later date taking a detailed look at Ms. Clinton’s plan along with those offered by her rivals. But the Senator did make some comments in defense of her offering - a bit of preemptive war, in Republican terms - that simply begs to be viewed through the lens of common sense. We would be remiss if we did not oblige.
Referring to the reception she expects her plan to receive, Clinton said: I know my Republican opponents will try to equate this plan with government-run health care. Well don’t let them fool you again,” as well as “We’re not creating any new bureaucracy, we’re trying to build on what works and fix what’s broken in our system .” (italics mine)
Think about that “no new bureaucracy” part for a minute. By Ms. Clinton’s own numbers, 46.5 million Americans currently have no health care. Are we to believe that the government that set up a half-century program to prop up the price of goat hair is going to do anything for fifty million unenrolled people without creating more bureaucracy? Moreover, the program would offer “the same health care benefits of private health care plans offered to Congress through the federal employee benefits program as well as a public program similar to Medicare” including the petabytes of records, forms, case files, claims, enrollments, and everything else that would be required. With no additional layers of government workers. Uh-huh. Do you believe her? Me, either.
Now, perhaps Ms. Clinton’s plan is exactly the right thing to do; maybe it would make the American health care system the envy of the world. But she’s trying to sell the program on the promise that it won’t increase the size of the federal government, and that simply cannot be true. That’s not even to say such an increase wouldn’t be acceptable given the promised results (though I’m not ready to make that argument) but the basic point is that Hillary is lying, and moreover doing so very clumsily. She could at least try to baffle us with impenetrable statistics or bury the details in legalese, but no. Her disdain for the American public is such that she doesn’t seem to believe that we are capable of reconciling her promise with the cost it will entail.
And that’s the real kicker; what does Clinton gain by misleading us? As she predicted, her Republican opponents have already begun to point out the inconsistencies in her offering. Their argument will gain traction by the simple fact that they have the truth on their side, in at least this one case. Had Ms. Clinton tried to sell her plan solely on being superior to those of her opponents - while at the same time admitting up front that yes, there will necessarily be a government role but that the results will be well worth it - she might have forced a debate on the relative merits of the proposals. As it is she has provided her rivals with the ability to reduce the contest to one of simple truth vs. dishonesty, and unfortunately she cast her own position in such a way that the barbs cannot fail to find their mark.
Topics: Democrats, Healthcare, Hillary Clinton |
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
But really does anyone actually think about the cost of these plans? Is this what caused Hillary’s plans to collapse during her husband’s administration–budget?? The American Public are basically sheep and they’ll vote knee-jerk style for anything that “sounds good”–health care for all, sure….more money for schools, heck yeah…….without every thinking about what that will mean to their pockets. They just can’t think that far in advance. That will work to Hillary’s advantage.