What we have here is a back-door argument to make healthcare a right. There is no reference in the Constitution for that, but there is for our rights to justice under the law. The 5th and 6th Amendments require a fair trial and the right to legal counsel in criminal matters, and so we the people provide that via our tax dollars at all levels of gov't. In truth, public defenders and the like ain't really that good, so you kinda get what you pay for. It's a little bit like letting a person operate on you when he/she is in their 2nd year of medical school. So, free legal services isn't all that wonderful. And it ain't all that expensive either, relative to healthcare.
Which is why we don't have a right to health-care; the plain and ugly truth is that we can't afford it in this country. We do require health service providers to treat people in ERs and clinics in some places, and if a state or city wants to provide universal healthcare for all, they can have at it. But not even the bluest states can do it. Why? Because it's too Goddamned expensive. Not even Bernie Sanders himself really knows, or if he does then he ain't sayin':
“Your agenda has promised free health care for everybody, free college tuition, and to pay off peoples’ college loans. The price tag for that is estimated to be $60 trillion dollars over ten years. Is that correct?” asked Norah O’Donnell of CBS Evening News.
“Well look, we have political opponents…” Sanders began before being cut off and pressed on the question.
“You don’t know how much your plan costs?” O’Donnell responded.
“You don’t know. Nobody knows. This is impossible to predict,” Sanders conceded, leaving O’Donnell stunned.
“You’re going to propose a plan to the American people and you’re not going to tell them how much it costs?” O’Donnell exclaimed.
@DailyCaller
“You don't know how much your plan costs?"@BernieSanders: "You don't know. Nobody knows. This is impossible to predict."
Sanders’ comments follow previous statements he made last October, in which he argued that he doesn’t have to explain how to pay for socialized medicine.
When asked by then-CNBC’s John Harwood – who unsurprisingly now works at CNN – how a Sanders administration would generate the required revenue for the program, Sanders dismissed the question.
“You’re asking me to come up with an exact detailed plan of how every American – how much you’re going to pay more in taxes, how much I’m going to pay. I don’t think I have to do that right now,” Sanders responded.
Bernie Sanders: 'I Don't Know How Much My Plans Are Going To Cost'
Current estimates run between $30 - $40 trillion over the next 10 years for UHC, and guess what? Everybody is going to have to pay a heckuva lot more in taxes, not just the rich guys. All these countries that have it now, they pay 50-60% in taxes, and that's every freakin' body. Personally, I think Sanders has a pretty good idea of what it'll cost in higher taxes, but he's not honest enough to tell us about it.
