Semi-Charmed Life

The Socialists Are Out To Get Us

I love how politicians always try to scare the shit out of the American people by always warning us that we're thissssss close to becoming a bunch of socialists. From The Atlantic:

Matt Yglesias once pointed out that we already have socialized, single-payer style healthcare. It's called Medicare, and it's one of our most popular social programs. This morning I heard a clip of Ronald Reagan, then candidate for governor, speaking about the prospect of Medicare, and sounding very much like today's town hall critics.

"If this program passes, one of these years we will tell our children and our children's children what it was like in American when men were free."
And:

"One of the traditional methods of imposing statism, or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can't afford it."
Just so you get it, that was almost fifty years ago.

Obviously us Americans today don't know what it is to be free.