It's important to note that Fred Thompson isn't going to be just any Republican. He's going to be a hack Republican. This is not a guy like Romney or Giuliani who's had a period of substantial executive experience, and so, whatever their panders, actually possess some independent idea of how policy works. Thompson is a movement conservative with no particular policy specialties and a deep involvement in the oh-so-substantial world of conservative talk radio. It'll be like electing Limbaugh. If the court would be so kind, I'd like to turn their attention to exhibit A, Thompson's radio review of Sicko:
It used to be a lot easier to make the case for nationalizing health care before we actually started looking at the countries that have it. A lot of people don't seem to have noticed but, in recent years, the grand experiments in bureaucratic medicine are coming apart at the seams.
What a tantalizing start to an argument. As Thompson surely knows, we spend more than twice as much as any other developed nation on health care. We have 45 million uninsured, while they have full coverage. Our health outcomes are comparatively poor. These must be some seams to overwhelm all those other concerns. I only wish I'd noticed them sooner.
Nearest home, it was the Canadian Health Care system that lost its luster. Despite paying nearly half their incomes in taxes, and as much as 40 percent of each tax dollar on health care, many Canadian experts have recognized that their health care system's in a state of crisis.
Who are these Canadian health care experts? Who knows! Good thing no one ever uses the word "crisis" in conjunction with our health care system (and certainly not 16,900,000 times). Meanwhile, why does Fred Thompson think it better to spend $6,102 per person on health care through private spending rather than $3,165 through public funds? Again, it's never explained.
Many Canadians have started coming to the US for treatments that they just can't get at home.
No.
Now, top officials of the British National Health Service, often held out as an example of the kind of socialized medicine America should adopt, have acknowledged that they have similar problems. One in eight National Health Service hospital patients has to wait more than a year for treatment. Thirty percent wait more than 30 weeks.
Think about it. This is what we're supposed to copy? The poorest Americans are getting far better service than that.
The Brits pay 41 percent what we do per person. If you want to purchase a $35,000 car, and I want to purchase a $14,350 car, who's going to get the better vehicle? And the Brits, again, don't have 45 million uninsured. Everyone there gets coverage. And despite what Thompson implies, you're far better off being covered there than uncovered here. Hell, you're better off there period. A recent study found that the English are far healthier than we are. Indeed, "in the categories of diabetes, blood pressure and cancer, England's poorest citizens -- those in the lowest one-third of income levels -- did better than the richest one-third of Americans." Some dystopia.
Look: Giuliani is wrong on health care. Thompson just doesn't know what he's talking about. He's spitting scare stories and conservative platitudes. There are no signs of sentience here at all. Put him in office and you'll get whatever the industry lobbyist's want.
All of which is to say, he's totally getting the nomination.
