On July 3rd, Contributor Joe Bilello wrote an opinion piece for online news blog Mediaite, and even if you dislike Bernie Sanders or think he's too far left in order to win elections, Bilello's piece is simply dreadful. The gist of the article is essentially how radical Sanders is as he wants the Government to control every single aspect of your life.. or the Vermont Senator just wants people to have health care and make a decent wage to support their families and have greater economic mobility, just like Stalin, right? Well, no. Not at all.
If Sanders advocating for Single-Payer health care means he wants complete governmental control of society, then why aren't places like Australia, Canada, France, Spain and the U.K. exactly like writer Bilello describes? If Sanders wanting to increase the minimum wage is 'radical', then surely Australia, with their $13.47 minimum wage, which the government sets, is an extremely radical country? Do the people of Australia have less freedom, or are they simply better off economically? I'll take a larger hourly wage over screaming about how a federally mandated minimum wage is taking away my "freedom".
"A very powerful politician continues to beat the drum for complete government control of nearly every significant aspect of our lives."
What's the alternative? We can see at this very moment the consequences of having "freedom" and the "free market" as our health care system with the AHCA that has been proposed. 24 MILLION people will be uninsured by 2026, so sure, you can try and be 'free', but you may end up as one of those who are uninsured and have rising health care bills - enjoy your freedom. In the United States, a much larger amount of money is spent on health care, with a lower quality of care and lower life expectancy. The US spends 9451 in US Dollars (PPP) per capita, 1686 more per capita than second place Luxembourg. Oh, and good old America is last in quality of health care - so you're paying more for poorer health care, ahh freedom!
"According to Sanders, one is not truly free until they are completely and totally dependant on the government for food, medicine and healthcare."
When has Bernie ever advocated for food to be provided by the government? I literally just googled it and not a single article, report or even blog to back up this claim, so it is just a blatant lie. Right-wing libertarians like to tout the free market as the best healthcare option, but like previously mentioned, the further we go in that direction, then less people are able to be insured, as insurance companies deem people with pre-existing conditions as too expensive to cover and poorer people simply cannot afford the rising costs, both before and during the Affordable Care Act. The Preamble to the United States Constitution states: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide the common defence, PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE..." Surely this means ensuring that the people of the United States are healthy and cared for, or are free markets more American than the Constitution?
"He has not mentioned why he did not go to medical school himself and volunteer his services free of charge. I guess his deeply held belief that everyone is entitled to a service provided by another only runs so deep."
Well, thank you for being open in suggesting that a segment of the American public shouldn't have health care or insurance, clearly a very compassionate man. This is a simple maths problem, if Bernie Sanders goes back in time and becomes a doctor, how many people could he save? 1000-5000 people, 10,000 max? Now, lets say Bernie is instrumental in passing a Single-Payer system, how many people could he save? An estimated 27 MILLION! This also doesn't take into account the people who are now able to lead a healthy life without going bankrupt due to high insurance costs, as health care costs are responsible for the most cases of bankruptcies in the US. So, we have no one going bankrupt, more people helped/saved, and the system is far cheaper than the one that is currently in place, there is no debate - single payer is a better system.
"And don't forget a living wage, in order to be truly free you must have the government force another private citizen to give you a certain amount of money, an amount arbitrarily decided by people like Bernie Sanders."
I'm just waiting for the inevitable "taxation is theft" argument from Bilello, I guess Joe will never want to use public roads, the fire department, police services or need urgent medical assistance. Imagine being someone who works 2-3 full time jobs, has a family, needs to keep the lights on and put food on the table, what will they appreciate more: 'freedom', a term which cannot be truly quantified, or a wage that enables said family to move up the economic ladder, clothe and feed themselves and pay their bills?
"If an incompetent and corrupt government takes over health care and the formerly-free-market, that will literally involve life and death consequences."
Notice how Joe does not tell us what these "life and death" consequences are - because he just made this part up. Joe also claims the government is completely corrupt, then I assume he loves the idea of getting corporate money out of politics, right? Of course not.
"If one man said that you are an stupid idiot with a stupid face and another man said he wanted complete control over everything you do, say, eat, drink, drive, watch, read, etc - who would you consider the bigger threat?"
Before I break this down, Mr Bilello, it's a stupid idiot, not an stupid idiot. The piece literally says "an stupid idiot", Jesus Christ, Joe. Please name a single, just one, time that Bernie Sanders, or any other progressive, has proposed any bill, measure or regulation that would allow a Sanders government to only allow you to eat or drink certain products? Could you also name the certain things we aren't allowed to do, say, eat, drink, drive, watch or read? Would be great for a heads up, Joe. Something tells me Joe is lying, as yet again he has failed to present any factual evidence of this being the case, just pure fear-mongering and speculation.
Joe Bilello also has only 57 Twitter followers, which shows how much of a popular writer he is, clearly. This article hasn't featured on his Twitter page like his other ones have with his last post suggesting Joe and Mika bully Donald Trump, posted June 30th. Anyway, I understand if you don't agree with Sanders politics, perfectly fine, but this article had a whole host of errors, and there is no doubt that this was a horrendous piece, and Joe is an atrocious writer.
***Spending figures may vary, as they have increased/decreased over time.
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