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Friday, June 28, 2019

The Second Night of the Democrat Debate

Night two of the Democrat debate brought crazy to a new height.  Every single candidate on the stage announced that he or she supported free government healthcare for illegal aliens.  Joe Biden even proclaimed that by giving free healthcare to more than then million illegals, we would bring the cost of the total healthcare system down.  It was an amazing low point for a debate that had a bunch of policy low points.

Think about it.  The cost of health insurance for the average American is about $6000 per year.  On top of that, nearly everyone pays a deductible and co-pays at the doctor which run many thousands more per year.  Let's assume that the cost of health insurance for the illegals is less than average, just $4000 per year.  That makes the annual cost of health insurance alone for the illegals almost $50 billion per year which the American tax payer will have to pay.  Then there's the co-pay and deductible which we will also have to pay as part of the free healthcare for illegals.  That brings the total cost to something like eighty to one hundred billion dollars every year.  And Biden says that will bring down the cost of the whole system.  Is he mad?

This was one of those moments when Biden seemed to think he could say anything and no one would realize he was wrong.  Biden, it seems, got used to being Obama's vice president and having essentially no one in the media ever challenge what he said.  That isn't how things are right now, however.

Another moment like this for Biden came when the subject of his strong opposition to school desegregation in the 1970s was brought up.  At that time, Biden was the principal sponsor of legislation to try to remove the use of bussing to take children to different schools in order to accomplish integration.  That's a fact; it's not some cheap accusation.  Indeed, Biden worked closely on this bill with those segregationist southern Democrat senators he praised a few weeks ago.  Almost no one mentioned his support of segregation in the coverage back then.  It allowed Kamala Harris to make a big splash last night at Biden's expense.  And his response was to say that he didn't have a racist bone in his body.  Given that the accuser is another Democrat, that just won't work for Biden.  He's going to have to own up to his past or just look like a liar and a fool (even more so than usual.)

Biden wasn't alone, though, in looking bad.  Eric Swalwell managed to come across as totally rude by constantly trying to scream his way into the discussion.  And speaking of screaming, Bernie Sanders seemed incapable of ever lowering the decibel level.  He also actually admitted that middle class voters would have to pay much higher taxes if his "Medicare for All" plan were adopted.  Many of the other candidates approved of that plan, though, so the line that only the wealthy would pay higher taxes has just been breached.  My guess is that this will get very little coverage right now, but you can be sure that the Trump campaign locked this away in the vault for use later to fight socialized medicine.

My take on the debate is that the two front runners, Biden and Sanders, did little to help themselves moving forward, and Biden actually shot himself in the foot repeatedly.  We will have to see how the polls reflect this in a few weeks.  Remember 2016 when Carly Fiorina was a star in the first GOP debates.  She moved up in the polls for about three weeks and then her support fizzled.  Last night's performances will matter, but one wonders for how long.  The Democrat convention is still more than a year away.

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