In a surprising admission, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quit defending the radical socialist influence rising in the midst of the Democrat party. The speaker took a shot at members of her own party on Sunday, telling CBS News’ Lesley Stahl in a “60 Minutes” interview that socialism “is not the view of the Democratic Party.”
The new radical left
Pepsi also went after the Medicare for All proposal praised by several Democratic presidential hopefuls. Stahl asked the House majority leader why she preferred Obamacare to Medicare for All, and Pelosi said that the Affordable Care Act is superior to the trillion dollar healthcare model popularized by the extreme left.
“Well, the Affordable Care Act is better than Medicare, there’s no question about that,” she said. “The Affordable Care Act benefits are better. Medicare doesn’t have a catastrophic plan. So if you want Medicare for All, you’re going to have to change Medicare, and let’s take a look at that.”
During a February interview with Rolling Stone, Pelosi was similarly critical of the current Medicare system as a model for universal healthcare. “It doesn’t have catastrophic [coverage] — you have to go buy it. It doesn’t have dental. It’s not as good as the plans that you can buy under the Affordable Care Act,” she said at the time.
“So I say to them, come in with your ideas, but understand that we’re either gonna have to improve Medicare — for all, including seniors — or else people are not gonna get what they think they’re gonna get,” Pelosi added. “And by the way, how’s it gonna be paid for?”
Pelosi estimates that the single-payer plan endorsed by a growing number of Democrats could cost as much as $30 trillion. “Now, how do you pay for that?” she asked.
Not my party
Stahl correctly pointed out that proposals like Medicare for All allow President Trump and Republicans to suggest that the Democratic Party has been overrun by radical socialist legislators. Pelosi dismissed this characterization.
“Do you know that when Medicare was done by the Congress at the time, under Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan said Medicare will lead us to a socialist dictatorship,” Pelosi said. “This is an ongoing theme of the Republicans.”
Yet, now that mainstream Democrats are legitimately considering turning Medicare into a universal healthcare system, Reagan’s prediction doesn’t seem too far off the mark. Surely, Pelosi recognizes the danger of a redistributionist health care system, which is why she followed up her Medicare history lesson with a statement condemning socialism.
“However, I do reject socialism as an economic system,” she asserted. “If people have that view, that’s their view. That is not the view of the Democratic Party.”
Last week, Democratic-socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) re-introduced his signature healthcare bill in the Senate, and so far at least four of his opponents on the 2020 campaign trail have endorsed the proposal. Democratic Sens. Cory Booker (NJ), Kamala Harris (CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) have each co-sponsored legislation that would completely abolish private health care insurance in favor of guaranteed government-run healthcare for every U.S. resident — including illegal immigrants.
Minimizing the threat
Despite the growing popularity of radical socialist reforms among congressional Democrats, Pelosi downplayed the appeal of far left legislation by insisting that it’s only “like five people” who advocate for a socialist agenda. She argued that it’s been an “ongoing theme” among Republicans to paint the Democratic Party as a socialist institution.
However, Pelosi is intentionally understating just how far to the left her party has shifted since the 2018 midterms. The Green New Deal, an extreme environmental resolution which calls for nationalizing the economy and eradicating gasoline-powered transportation, garnered 91 Democratic co-sponsors in the House and 12 in the Senate — including seven potential presidential candidates.
Although she is a genuine progressive representing one of the most radical districts in the U.S., even Pelosi recognizes the dangerous transformation affecting the Democratic Party.
However, the House speaker may be vastly understating the widespread allure of redistributionist policies within her own caucus — a political metamorphosis that only promises to fester and multiply within a party that embraces an impractical and delusory political agenda based on identity, victimhood and a complete disregard for capitalist success.
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