Ben Cline spent time tonight at the final Sixth District congressional debate of the 2018 campaign season bashing Democratic opponent Jennifer Lewis for her support of Medicare for All.
Funny thing, that. A new poll shows even a majority of Republicans support Medicare for All.
That new poll comes courtesy of The Hill, and it finds that 52 percent of Republicans support Medicare for All, which is, yep, you guessed it, universal healthcare, just called something else.
So here we have Cline, in a statement to the press after the debate in Lynchburg:
“Time after time my opponent advocated proposals that will massively increase the size of government, double most Americans’ taxes, and cost us $32 trillion in more federal debt, in short, more and more government. I believe the voters of the 6th District want a Representative who will go to Washington and represent their values and be their voice. With your support on November 6 that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
The $32 trillion figure is, of course, bunk. It’s based on a George Mason University study funded by the Kochs that claimed that Medicare for All would cost an estimated $32 trillion over 10 years.
Which found that, yes, true, Medicare for All for would cost an estimated $32 trillion over 10 years. The study also found that the current healthcare system, which costs us on the aggregate just under $5 trillion a year, would cost around $50 trillion over the next 10 years.
Meaning: for those who have a good handle on math, a savings with Medicare for All of $17 trillion over the next 10 years.
Dang, you’re saying to yourself. Cline must not be good at math, if he thinks Medicare for All adds $32 trillion to the federal debt.
No, he’s just good at running plays out of the Republican playbook, and the bread and butter play to pick up first downs is to claim that Democrats are all about spending your money and raising the debt.
When, in reality, it’s Republicans cutting taxes on millionaires and billionaires raising the budget deficit to record levels who are doing a historic job at that.
But, he knows that you’re not going to put too much thought into that.
You’re too busy worrying yourself to sleep about a supposed migrant caravan that is headed for the southern border to do God-knows-what, and I mean that literally, because nobody really knows what that furor is supposed to be about, except getting you riled up about brown people marauding their way from the border to your front door, bad hombres that they are.
You’ll vote for Ben Cline anyway, because you live in the Sixth District, and the Sixth District is 70 percent Republican.
And you won’t get affordable healthcare, and you’ll die years before you should as a result.
But at least those brown people who have no chance of getting anywhere near your house won’t get anywhere near your house.
Column by Chris Graham
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