The far left of the Democrat party is promoting Universal Healthcare, or socialized medicine as some call it. At first glance it sounds enticing, but it has been pointed out that the cost of such a program would run into several trillion dollars. When a proponent was confronted with this expected cost recently, he answered that we were spending too much on an "unnecessary war" with Iran. Let's examine that.
There are two distinct subjects here, each deserving separate discussion. We'll look at Universal Healthcare second. Regarding the "unnecessary war" it should be pointed out that every recent president, both Democrat and Republican, has said that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. Most recently President Joe Biden said: "We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Period. Period. End of discussion." No ambiguity there! So, the author who said that we are now engaged in an "unnecessary war" is going against all previous administrations both left and right. When Trump became president the second time Iran was within a matter of two weeks of having sufficient enriched uranium to produce several nuclear warheads. In a bold move Trump had a long-range bomber travel non-stop from the USA, being refueled along the way, to deliver a penetrating bomb to a deep mine in Iran where nukes were being developed. Therefore, their nuclear activities were stopped--let's hope permanently. It was a matter of necessity.
The second subject is Socialized Medicine. The expected cost is horrific, especially when added to our existing national debt. Cost is one thing. Performance is another. Let me give a personal example. I had an elderly cousin in England who had cataracts on her eyes. Under the British National Health System (socialized health care) she had to wait several months before her turn came up for surgery. On that day she had a cold, and the surgeon refused to operate. She then had to go to the back of the line for a new appointment. The cataracts continued to invade, and she became almost blind until her death a few years later.
Prominent socialists such as New York mayor Zohran Mamdani are fond of promising "free stuff" to their constituents--for example fare-free city buses in the case of New York. But as British PM Maggie Thatcher once said, "Socialism is great until you run out of other peoples' money!" Mamdani will soon find this out. He is taxing the rich in New York to the point where the very rich are starting to leave that city. Universal Healthcare will be the same. It will not live up to its promises both in cost and in performance.
Peter Gilderson, Madison.
