Ron Paul Liberty Report - Republicans’ Responsibility for Socialism’s Comeback
Aired: 2018-09-19
Duration: 04:43


=== Conservatives and Medicare for All (03:59) ===

[00:00:02]  Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.
[00:00:06]  Republicans' responsibility for socialism's comeback.
[00:00:11]  According to a recent Reuters survey, 70% of Americans, including about 50% of Republicans, support Medicare for All, the latest incarnation of single-payer health care.
[00:00:24]  Republican support for a health plan labeled Medicare for All is not surprising considering that Republican politicians support Medicare and that one of their attacks on Obamacare was that it would harm the program.
[00:00:39]  Furthermore, the biggest expansion of Medicare since its creation, the Part D prescription drug program, occurred under a conservative president working with a conservative Congress.
[00:00:55]  Conservative Republicans do propose reforming Medicare to reduce its cost, but their proposals are always framed as saving Medicare, and most reform plans increase spending.
[00:01:09]  Few conservatives, Republicans would dare advocate allowing young people to opt out of paying Medicare taxes in exchange for agreeing to forego Medicare benefits.
[00:01:22]  Many conservative Republicans favor other government interventions into health care, including many features of Obamacare.
[00:01:31]  In fact, Obamacare's individual mandate originated as a conservative proposal and was once championed by many leading Republicans.
[00:01:42]  Many other Republicans simply lack the courage to repeal Obamacare, so they say that they only want to repeal the unpopular parts of the law.
[00:01:51]  It would not be surprising if we soon heard conservatives and Republican politicians talk about defending Obamacare from supporters of socialized medicine.
[00:02:03]  The same dynamic at work in healthcare is at work in other areas.
[00:02:08]  For example, the same conservative administration and Congress that created Medicare Part D also dramatically expanded federal control of education with no child left behind.
[00:02:22]  Conservative Republicans, who rightly fight against deficit spending when a Democrat sits in the White House, decide that deficits don't matter when the president has an R next to his name.
[00:02:35]  Many Republican politicians and even conservative intellectuals will say they are being pragmatic by not fighting progressives on first principles, but instead limiting the damage done by the welfare state.
[00:02:49]  The problem with this line is that by accepting the premise that government can and should solve all of life's problems, conservatives and Republicans will inevitably get into a bidding war with progressives and Democrats.
[00:03:05]  The only way Republicans can then win is to join Democrats in continually increasing spending and creating new programs.
[00:03:14]  This is why the so-called conservative welfare state ends up as bloated and expensive as the progressive welfare state.
[00:03:23]  Refusing to question the premises of the welfarists and socialists is not a pragmatic way to advance liberty.
[00:03:32]  While progressives blame social crises on the free market, Republicans and conservatives are unwilling to admit the problems were caused by prior government interventions.
[00:03:44]  Thus, the passage of Dodd-Frank was aided by claims that the housing bubble was created by deregulation, while Obamacare's passage benefited from widespread misconception that America had a free market health care system prior to 2010.

=== New Liberty Movement (00:41) ===

[00:04:01]  Until a popular intellectual movement arises that is able and willing to challenge the premises of Keynesianism, welfarism, and democratic socialism while putting forth a positive vision of a free society, government will continue to expand.
[00:04:20]  Fortunately, such a movement exists and is growing as more Americans, particularly young Americans, are studying the ideas of liberty and working to spread those ideas.
[00:04:31]  If the new liberty movement grows and stays true to its principles, it will be able to defeat the socialists of all parties, including those who call themselves Conservative.