The Questions That Should Have Been Asked at The Debate

Posted by Change Jar Conservative (Diary)

Tuesday, September 13th at 2:40PM EST

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If I were a billionaire, I’d host my own debate for the GOP. Each candidate would get the chance to answer five questions without interruption. After they had each given their answer, I’d allow an attack / rebuttal time of 5/5 minutes each.

1) What is your plan to create full-time jobs in the private sector of this country?

2) Social Security and Medicare are going broke and and the Democrats don’t care. How specifically would you fix the current situation?

3) Illegal immigration is a problem in this country. How specifically would you fix it?

4) America has been at war for ten years and the Democrats recently added another battle front in Libya.

a) How would you approach the problem?

b) When would you feel it was right to commit US troops to a warzone?

c) Do you think there is a position on foreign policy between “nation building” and “isolationism”?

5) What current functions of the federal government would you dismantle and return to the purview of the states?

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Wolf Blitzer's biased framing of the coma hypothetical

6eorge Jetson (Diary) Wednesday, September 14th at 9:49AM EST (link)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1109/12/se.06.html

BLITZER: Thank you, Governor. Before I get to Michele Bachmann, I want to just — you’re a physician, Ron Paul, so you’re a doctor. You know something about this subject. Let me ask you this hypothetical question.

A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I’m not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I’m healthy, I don’t need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it.

Who’s going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?

PAUL: Well, in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of him.

BLITZER: Well, what do you want?

PAUL: But what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not be forced —

BLITZER: But he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have it, and he needs intensive care for six months. Who pays?

PAUL: That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody —

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?

PAUL: No. I practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals.

(APPLAUSE)

PAUL: And we’ve given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume responsibility for ourselves. Our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it. This whole idea, that’s the reason the cost is so high.

The cost is so high because they dump it on the government, it becomes a bureaucracy. It becomes special interests. It kowtows to the insurance companies and the drug companies, and then on top of that, you have the inflation. The inflation devalues the dollar, we have lack of competition.

PAUL: There’s no competition in medicine. Everybody is protected by licensing. And we should actually legalize alternative health care, allow people to practice what they want.

As usual, Wolf Blitzer acting as a representative of the statist media attempts to introduce a false choice.

Who pays? The 30 year old pays. Duh. And incurs debt if he can’t. And goes into the court system to work it out if he cannot repay that debt.

The hypothetical 30 year old made a financial decision by not purchasing insurance. And should rightly bear the financial consequences of that financial decision. With the benefit of preparation time, Wolf would have you believe that the only alternative was death. A false choice, Mr. Blitzer.