A Republican accidentally tells the truth

[Theophylact]

Quote:

Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of "Marxist thought," puts it: "After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party when health care, social welfare, education and pro-working class policies were enacted by labor-supported governments."

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

In other words, universal health care must be stopped because people would like it, and that would make them favor the Democrats.

[surreal]

I have no doubt.

[The Real Bingo]

Gee...people who vote for people who give them stuff. I wonder how many people would vote Republican if they proposed a program to give everyone a free house?

[Atomic Rooster]

Whoever wrote what you quoted left out an important part of what Norman Markowitz said:

Quote:

A “single payer” national health system – known as “socialized medicine” in the rest of the developed world – should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need. Britain serves as an important political lesson for strategists. After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party…

He goes on to say:

Quote:

The best way to win over the the portion of the working class in the South or the West that supported McCain and the Republicans is to create important new public programs and improve the social safety net. National health care [and other measures] will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition. That is how progress works.

[Disley]

Here's the relevant sentence in the quote.

Quote:

National health care [and other measures] will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition. That is how progress works.

As for this misleading statement.

Quote:

A “single payer” national health system – known as “socialized medicine” in the rest of the developed world

[Atomic Rooster]

I don't believe that Norman Markowitz is misleading anybody with that term disley. He writes from a Marxist perspective, so I think he knows what he's talking about on this subject.

[Disley]

This part of the article was of more interest. Unfortunately much of it wasn't included in the quote above.

Quote:

The best way to win over the the portion of the working class in the South or the West that supported McCain and the Republicans is to create important new public programs and improve the social safety net. National health care, significantly higher minimum wages, support for trade union organizing, aid to education should all be on the agenda. These programs will improve the quality of our lives lives directly, giving us greater security and establishing the social economic changes that will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition. That is how progress works.

There's nothing marxist about it, it's no more than should be expected for the working people of any country.

[RayH]

I don't like this socialized medicine thing. I think the way is works now is just fine: first you get service, then you find out either that your insurance doesn't cover it or you have been canceled! That's the way God intended!

[Chuckiechan]

I don't have a problem with a plan that picks up the uninsured. I do have a problem with a plan that kills off private insurance, or makes economic sense to drop the private plans in favor of the public plan.

We shouldn't make the "social safety net" too soft or too many people are just going to live there.

The other problem is illegal aliens. How do we stop them from coming in from Mexico for treatment, then going back home?

Finally, we don't have enough doctors to do the job, so I guess we'll have to expand the job corps for minor surgeries and medical diagnosis. Sure, many will die, but that's the price you pay for Socialised medicine - you have to ration care. Why waste resources on a kidney for a 70 year old person, when there is a 30 year old one waiting in line, too.

I want a plan that the government is required to use, period. But realistically, the public sector will get a gravy plan and the private sector will get the shaft.

[Shipuuden]

That's easy just make Mexico a state.