Jim Hightower: Help Save the GOP From Their Own Socialism [VIDEO]

Posted by Jim Hightower, AlterNet at 11:30 AM on November 21, 2007.

It's always impressive to see a politician take an unbending stand on principle, so I salute George W for going against popular opinion by vetoing the SCHIP bill, which would have extended health coverage to some six million uninsured children in our country.

Bush said that what irked him about this children's health proposal is the principle of providing government-financed, coverage which he derided as "federalized" medicine. George, you see, is a die hard privatization ideologue, and he insists that people should get their health care from the free market, not the government. The vast majority of his Republican colleagues in Congress agreed, voting to uphold his veto of the children's bill.

This news prompted Alan, one of our stalwart [listeners] [readers] in Fort Collins, Colorado, to suggest a national campaign in support of this principled stand that the Republicans in Washington have taken. Since Bush and his GOP allies don't believe in federalized medicine, Alan says it is our duty to free them of the burden of having their own health coverage paid for by us taxpayers! As a matter of principle, we must take away their government health plans and let them buy their own in the free market.

This idea offers two pluses: one, taxpayers will no longer have to pay benefits to politicians who are ideologically opposed to them, and, two, the money saved can be redirected to the millions of American children without health coverage.

This is Jim Hightower saying... If Alan's idea appeals to you, call the GOP Congressional conference and urge that its members give up their "federalized" health plans: (202) 225-5107. And while you're at it, tell them to forego their socialized government retirement money, too. After all, it's the principle of the thing.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of "Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time to Take It Back." He publishes the monthly "Hightower Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer.