Thatcher wasn't able to replicate what Reagan did in the US because of the NHS, says Rick Santorum

 

Comments

[Ultimo Tiger]

Replicate spending hundreds of billions on defence and running up the deficit while claiming to be a fiscal conservative?

And he is also not aware that Britain was for all intents and purposes bankrupt when the war ended (and the NHS didn't exist at that point)?

Is he not aware that large parts of the Empire wanted to be independent anyway and it would have been difficult to force them to stay anyway?

Is he not aware that until the Blair/Brown years, NHS spending wasn't as much as it currently is?

Is he not aware that the current mess of a system the US has costs more than the NHS while leaving Christ knows how many without cover?

Do his religious beliefs allow him to sleep easy knowing insurance companies have the power of life and death over others?

Is going on about Gay Marriage when your economy is staring into the abyss really all that wise?

Should we just vote for Ron Paul anyway and hope he'll save that country from oblivion?

[Adam]

Fair point. I sure know I'm supporting Rick Santorum for president!

[Adam Dixon]

I think most British Patriots are proud of our NHS. This yank worshipping by CH is going too far..

[Iain Gill]

the NHS is sub 3rd world, it lets far too many people down, it fails to deliver cheap simple treatment which would keep many of us alive for much longer, its worse than an insurance company because we have no contract with it and it decides what it feels like providing, it widely varies from one part of the country to another, the patients have no power and are forced to tolerate abuse, dirt, waits and substandard care, it provides no care to folk who move address often and little care to folk working away from home. Top down management doesnt work anywhere and the NHS is a classic example.

there are many better systems than the NHS in the developed world we should start and learn from some of them.

on the other hand this nonsense that the NHS is what held Mrs T back is pure fantasy.

[EalingTory]

Rick Santorum is a vile turd. Thankfully he is utterly unelectable beyond his base of the most swivel-eyed lunatic evangelical christians. May his decent to obscurity be as quick as his rise.

[Verma]

I hope we are not going to have much Santorum loving on this site.

He is human offal.

[patrick]

I really don't think we need language such as 'turd' & 'offal'.

I would agree with those however who say he is a lunatic!

[Nick Phillips]

Oh please, first we had endless Palin-worshipping on here, and now this.

[Rothbard]

Whilst his criticisms of socialied healthcare ring true, he is such an objectionable piece of evangelical banality, a man remarkable for his stupidity.

[Mender]

I'm glad I don't live in the USA, and that I'm not as blinkered as he is.

Incidentally, studies show that people in the USA are less likely to set up their own business that people in Norway, Sweden and many other European countries: maybe they're scared of losing health insurance?

[Cisite]

Even before this latest asinine pronouncement, I wasn't a fan of Rick Santorum. It's as though everything which is corrosive and unelectable about the American right has been distilled into a single individual. It pains me to say it, but if he secures the Republican nomination then I'll be hoping for on Obama win.

[Mender]

Oh, finally bothered to watch it all now. The NHS destroyed the British Empire? He really is nuts.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

I'm getting sick of ConHome cheerleading for this odious creep. Every upward shift in his numbers has brought a near jubilant response from the editors (or rather, editor?), with links aplenty. Meanwhile, pro-freedom, pro-peace, pro-trade candidates are derided.

Santorum represents everything that's bad about the rump of what's left of the American right: Jingoistic, ignorant, anti-science, anti-gay, pro-war, authoritarian and statist.

He's one of those Repubs who believe that government should be small alright. Small enough to be able to get into your bedroom (or if you're a woman, your womb)

[jjh]

I was gobsmacked when I saw this on Newsnight last night. Thank goodness that we had and have an NHS here to prevent Thatcher and other loony right-wing nutters from doing here what Reagan did in the USA.

His comments shine a light on what loony right-wing policies Mummy Maggie might have tried to implement here, in addition to the Poll Tax, in the absence of the civilising and progressive force of the NHS. A creation, and ONLY COULD HAVE BBEN a creation, by the LEFT in this country. If the Tories had their way we would have an "every man for himself, let the market rip" form of health care. Thankfully we DON'T!!

An oh by the way I have always had excellent treatment in the NHS. I cannot say a bad word about it in my experience. It's EXCELLENT with dedicated public servants doing a afantastic job.

[Ultimo Tiger]

The NHS was originally the idea of a Liberal not the Left.

And while I support the existence of the NHS, my family can vouch to bad experiences in it. Very bad ones.

Cleethorpes on the other hand, made an excellent comment.

[Patrick Able]

Thousands of women with botched boob jobs are going to get surgery payed for by taxpayers.
While I don't entirely agree with what he says, he does have a point about dependency.

[Tony Makara]

Once medical treatment is opened up to the profit motive two things occur. Access is determined by wealth, and essential services, including research into pharmaceuticals, disappear if they are deemed not to be profitable.

The way a nation treats its sick and disadvantaged is a mark of its civilization, and it has to be said that the United States, for all its material wealth, has failed to provide for its sickly poor.

I will always remember the comments of a young girl a few years ago at a meeting to raise money for cancer research, she said, "Why doesn't the government do it?" the room fell silent and then spontaneously exploded into a round of supporting applause.

Perhaps it is because of ideologues like Sanctorum, and his fellow-travellers on Conservative Home, those who value the right to make a profit over peoples health needs, that government doesn't do enough and because that people have to die.

[Iain Gill]

Tony Makara,

Dont you understand the NHS doesnt provide even the most basic care? It consumes vast amounts of money and yet folk have to pay private for a cardiologist because THEY WOULD BE DEAD IF LEFT TO THE NHS

Dont defend something which fails so spectacularly to deliver the basic norms of healthcare routine in the rest of the developed world

?

[Mender]

The NHS fails so spectacularly to deliver the basic norms of healthcare routine in the rest of the developed world?

It costs 40% less than the American system does and it keeps us alive for longer. Sure it's not perfect but Santorum is just wrong.