Sarah Palin described Republican proposals in the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as socialistic and corrupt during an interview with Matthew Boyle for Breitbart News Saturday.
Palin speculated that the AHCA – which she called “RINOcare” – would not directly affect the Congress and its employees; a la AHCA for me but not for thee. In so doing, she indirectly referenced exemptions afforded to Congress and its staff from the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
“[The AHCA is] new form of Obamacare that I’m going to call RINO-care—not another word from [our fearless leaders] until we are definitively told that there is no provision whatsoever allowing Congress to exempt itself whatsoever with this law.”
“Government-run medicine,” she added, still partly amounts to “socialism” and “socialized medicine,” at odds with free markets many Republicans claim to support:
“As with anything else mandated by Congress, every single dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’ in this had better apply to them, too, and not just the people who they are lording this thing over because remember, this government-controlled health care is the system that requires involuntary enrollment in an unaffordable, unsustainable, unwanted, unconstitutional continuation of government-run medicine, and even in this new quasi-reformed proposal, it is still an aspect of socialism. That’s the whole premise here.
…
I don’t know why we’re still even giving an inch on aspects of socialized medicine via this new RINO-care proposal. Is that okay with conservatives, with Republicans in office? They say they want the patient first; they say they want freedom; they say they want a free market to drive the insurance system that we have in America. But no, government is still in control. Government actually has a lien on our health because they lord over us penalties if we want to opt out of a big government mandate.”
Palin said the AHCA, at least in its current form, amounts to corruption of the health insurance market via the government. Politicians, she quipped, should be forced to advertise their political benefactors on their clothing as NASCAR drivers do with their sponsors:
“[The AHCA will allow] politicians [to again] pick the winners and losers, and it makes you wonder who’s lobbying hardest for aspects of this new bill because obviously there are special interests involved.
…
It would be really helpful if every single one of these politicians would do like the NASCAR drivers do—and it’s been said before—but let them wear their sponsors plastered all over their three-piece suits when they show up so we know what side they’re on, and who they’re actually doing their bidding for… We want to, and have the right to know who’s actually putting pen to paper and writing this because we know the politicians don’t write the laws.”
The AHCA would help “big pharma and big lobbyists,” said Palin, accusing such interests of being dependent on governmental corruption to remain financially viable.
Palin praised Republicans opposing the AHCA such as Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rand Paul (R-KS).
On the AHCA’s constitutionality, Palin pointed to what she said amounted to weaponization of the IRS to enforce taxation without representation. If passed in its current form, she said, the AHCA would create a governmental “lien on our health:”
“But we can’t lose sight of the entire premise between the whole pro-Obamacare and the pro-RINOcare arguments. It’s so wrong because it’s still so unconstitutional. It’s still taxation without representation. It still picks winners and losers because some corporations get to opt out of the requirements that hit everyone else. It still infringes on states’ rights, and it still weaponizes the IRS against Americans who just simply seek freedom and choices and sensibility in their families’ health care. The IRS will be taxing aspects of this without representation because we have no choice. We’re shackled to politicians’ whims, and special interests’ bullying interests, which does violate the Constitution, and it actually allows government to have a lien on our health.”
Listen to the interview below.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.