Politics go on
Debate during a national emergency
AT FIRST, it was surreal, watching a presidential debate with no audience. Then it became pacific. Maybe the candidates will agree to debate like this in the future—without audience members booing or cheering at pre-programmed points. Few are fooled: Americans can tell when a campaign has packed its people inside the venue to get an advantage.
The precaution against exposure might have helped the candidates more than any particular would-be audience member: It should still be noted that the three people most likely to win the presidential contest later this year will be older than the age of 70. That is a concern.
The big takeaway politically—and politics will still go on—is that Joe
Biden looked much more at ease Sunday night without seven or eight people shouting his name and interrupting him.
The debate centered on the covid-19 pandemic, as it should have. And boy, were there some revealing moments when health care was discussed. Including early on, when Bernie Sanders gave us this in the opening minutes:
“We’re spending so much money and yet we are not even prepared for this pandemic. How come we don’t have enough doctors? How come hospitals in rural areas are shutting down? How come people can’t afford to get the prescription drugs they need because we have a bunch of crooks who are running the pharmaceutical industry, ripping us off every single day, and I’ll tell you something right now, in the midst of this epidemic, you’ve got people in the pharmaceutical industry who are saying, ‘Oh wow, what an opportunity to make a fortune.’
“So the word has got to go out. I certainly would do this as president. You don’t worry, people of America, do not worry about the cost of prescription drugs. Do not worry about the cost of the health care that you’re going to get, because we are a nation, a civilized democratic society. Everybody, rich and poor, middle-class, will get the care they need. The drug companies will not rip us off.” We scarcely know where to start. In Bernie Sanders’ world, those running the pharmaceutical industry— those who discover, make and distribute our medicines—are hoping to make a fortune off this pandemic. And how does Bernie Sanders propose to stop that? By having government pay for all health care. Because you know how things get less expensive when government starts paying for it.
Doubtless there will be some price gouging in all industries during a crisis, if the worst among us can get away with it. But right now any pharmaceutical company that can come up with a vaccine for covid-19 should expect a profit, and greatly deserve it.
As for the number of doctors, how would Medicare For All create more? It should be noted that Obamacare gave medical insurance to hundreds of thousands of people, but created not one new doctor. Medicare For All would do that yet again, and then some.
But we’ve heard all this before. For the most part, Sen. Sanders repeated old lines from his campaign stump speeches. He has those memorized, and all he has to do is press “play” and one of those recordings will indeed voice his call for Medicare For All.
This time, however, the former vice president had something new to say about it. And a light went off in the darkness. And suddenly, perspective. From Joe Biden!
He noted that Italy has a single-payer system, its own version of Medicare For All, and for the latest news from Italy just look to the front page. As much as Bernie Sanders pushes his plans, and as much as he uses this month’s news to promote the ideas, a government-run healthcare plan wouldn’t prevent pandemics. If it could, this virus would have been stopped in its tracks throughout Europe.
Bernie Sanders, however, says the problem is the lack of government planning: “[I]n terms of Medicare For All, despite what the vice president is saying, what the experts tell us, is that one of the reasons that we are unprepared and have been unprepared is we don’t have a system. We got thousands of private insurance plans. That is not a system that is prepared to provide health care to all people. In a good year without the epidemic, we’re losing up to 60,000 people who die every year because they don’t get to a doctor on time. It’s clearly this crisis is only making a bad situation worse.”
So the best and the brightest need to set up a “system” for the rest of us. Certainly Bernie Sanders would know where to find the best and brightest. Just as JFK found them to run Vietnam.
Even though much of the debate focused on the covid-19 virus, we were glad that CNN didn’t cancel it completely. It was reassuring to know that life will go on. And politics can continue, even if basketball can’t.