Giuliani: Grim Spectre of Dem "Socialism" Threatens Us All

by William Prendergast

You got to expect this bullshit from liberal Republicans as the nomination noose gets tighter:

Giuliani Sees Socialism in Democrats' Plans

Saturday, April 28, 2007; Page A04

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani pulled out the S-word to criticize universal-health-care plans advocated by Democratic presidential candidates.

The Republican hopeful said in a visit to Raleigh, N.C., that Democrats who urged "mandatory" universal health care at a debate Thursday night were "moving toward socialized medicine so fast, it'll make your head spin," according to the Associated Press.

Don’t blame the boy, he can’t help it. If you’re trying to get the GOP nod, you have to court the conservatives—they’re the mainstay of the party. He’s got to call the Dems socialists, or he can’t get the nomination. It’s that simple.

Does he really believe the Dems are socialists? Like hell he does—that’s his main advantage over the other GOP nominees, the boy is smart. He just tells a Republican crowd that the Dems are socialists because that’s what they want to hear. Rudy believes in free market economics about as much as he believed in ending “rent control” in Manhattan.

Giuliani instead advocated for a private solution. "When we want to cover poor people, as we should, we give them vouchers," he said.

So that’s how you’re gonna pitch this one, eh, Rude? I get it now—the oooold “give ‘em a voucher” trick—third time I’ve fallen for it this week... “You don’t need to do the whole big schmear to get these “poor” people covered; we’ll just give ‘em a voucher.” (But what the hell’s he talking about “poor” people for? Rudy, what we’re trying to get right now is coverage for “working” Americans and their families. But if he thinks the only problem is with “poor” people, let ‘im go, he’s on a roll--)

Vouchers are the solution, he says. And he says this is the Republican/conservative way, which is strange, because despite all these years of GOP rule--none of us know how this voucher system would work in practice. If you were a working American who went to his Republican Congressman over the last twelve years and asked for a voucher to cover your kids’ health care--that official would either throw you the hell out or call the state mental hospital to have you picked up because you were crazy.

It was and is Republican/conservative boilerplate that “there is no right to health care.” They don’t care about this issue; and a lot of conservative Americans put them in power because they didn’t care either. That’s why we still don’t know how Rudy’s voucher system would work in practice--because the GOP never is interested in broadening access to health care unless there is an election in sight. Then they talk, talk, talk about how much they care, care, care, until the election is over, over, over.

But last year the voters told them to fuck off, fuck off, fuck off. So if Rudy’s serious about demonstrating how this voucher system would work, he should do so by example. The next time that he feels like having sex with a woman who is not his wife, he should give her a voucher instead. And he should give his ex-wives vouchers for the years the years they put into those marriages, and he should give vouchers to his kids by his second marriage for blowing off their graduations, commencements, etc. cause he had to do other more important stuff. And he needs to give some vouchers to the families of firefighters whose bodies were never recovered because he called that off.

That way we’ll know that he takes his promises seriously, this time. I see great possibilities for Giuliani’s voucher system, but it’s untried and we must remember: reform starts at home. You go first, Rudy, show us how it’s done.