News
Sarah Palin Supports Socialized Health Care
Alex Moore :: Monday, March 8th, 2010 1:45 pm
Speaking in Alberta, Canada, Sarah Palin announced Saturday night that she had once “zoomed over the border” for health care in Canada that her family was not able to receive in the States, a tacit endorsement of the kind of socialized health care system Palin and her Tea Party affiliates have been publicly eviscerating all year.
“Believe it or not,” Palin explained, “we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse [Canada].”
Oh we believe it, Sarah—as do the 46 million uninsured Americans who have no access to health care in this country. “I think, Isn’t that kind of ironic, now, zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.”
The only thing more unnerving than someone with Palin’s resume using the word ironic incorrectly is creating irony while she’s at it: There’s nothing ironic about seeking medical attention abroad when your family can’t afford it at home, but it is highly ironic that Palin, one of the loudest voices railing against providing healthcare to all Americans, has crossed borders to benefit from the exact kind of system she’s been naysaying here at home.
What more self-destructive arguments will these Tea Party people make next after the healthcare debate gets resolved? Will “No Taxes” slide inexorably into “Don’t Fix The Potholes On My Road” and “Stop Educating My Child”? I guess only time will tell.
The bigger message in her statement was her admission that she not only “hustles” on this side of the border, but her family has been “hustling” both sides of the border for 40 years!!! Duh.
Posted by: Mary March 8th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Before you even read the article, you can tell this piece will bash Palin. Just look at the picture they used! Probabaly the worst picture I have ever seen of Sarah.
btw: She used the word ironic correctly.
Posted by: Martin March 8th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Sarah’s parents hustled to Whitehorse because it was the closest Medical Facility. It was not an endorsement of Canadian Health Care per se or to escape the cost of healthcare in the states. Palin was 5 years old at the time, somehow you accuse her making some conscious decision to benefit from the kind of healthcare she opposes in the States. Is she really responsible for her preschool visits to neighboring Canada for medical treatment??
I find your reasoning disingenious and malicious and desperate really.
Posted by: A3strand March 8th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Hey Martin - Sure, there was a little bashing here, couldn’t help it. But I was only addressing the contradictions in what Palin has actually said. I don’t really see what the picture has to do with it. She’s an outspoken, opinionated orator - should we only use photos where she looks posed and “pretty?” She’s a politician—no one complains about pictures of Obama or John Boehner where they look “ugly.”
Also, btw, she definitely didn’t use the word irony correctly. Irony is the condition in which the actual meaning of something is the opposite of its intended meaning. It would be ironic if she were now fighting for universal health care in the States and had had to shuttle to Canada for health care. But her fight against reform for universal coverage in America will simply fortify the condition of mass non-coverage, in which families living in Alaska without health insurance will cross over into Canada to receive health care. That’s not irony, it’s just propagating the current condition. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
Posted by: SXB March 8th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
The Yukon did not have socialized health care prior to 1972. They paid for their health care nonetheless.
Posted by: Harold March 8th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Or, Alex, the proper use or irony entails describing something that is opposite of what you’d expect- like Palin admitting that she had to ’shuttle to Whitehorse” FOR THE NEAREST HEALTH CARE FACILITY to rural Alaska at that time, rather than your ridiculous implication that she endorsed a socialized system of medicine for that irony itself- that she had to shuttle over to a state now renowned for socialized medicine (and waitlists) to find access to healthcare at the time.
Posted by: Patrick March 8th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Look, the fact is that Sara Palin does not actually believe in anything she says. She says what she thinks will play well to her constituency. That is why she needed cue cards written on her hand. This is more evidence of that. She didn’t even know that admitting that she benefitted from Canadian health care would undermine her previous position on health care because she doesn’t really know, remember or believe in what her previous positions on health care were.
Posted by: Jim March 8th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
SARAH WHO?
Posted by: EVANGELENE CORREY March 9th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
What’s IRONIC is that she has found memories of a universal health care system outside of the USA while she bases one for her own country.
I love Americans, but please stop embarrassing yourself on the world stage by allowing Palin to travel.
- A Canadian who enjoys his health system and would not trade it for yours…
Posted by: Groove Mctwang March 11th, 2010 at 12:03 pm