The 2nd Democratic debate

Watching Morning Joe this morning as the hosts critiqued last night's Democratic debate. Joe got so many things wrong, in my opinion .... he was scandalized that most (all?) of the candidates were for giving migrants health care, and he was also scandalized that most (all?) of the candidates were for Medicare for all.

1) Of course we would want health care given to migrants and illegal aliens. Should we instead watch sick migrant children suffer and die in their cages at the border, withholding any treatment? Should we let that portion of the population that is illegal in our cities and towns simply die in the streets instead of providing medical care? How do you think epidemics begin and thrive? Who do you think ends up paying when those without insurance can only get treated in emergency rooms? And really, wouldn't you hope you could have medical care if you were the person in need?

2) Please stop acting like it would be the end of life as we know it if everyone had Medicare. I've had Medicare most of my life because that is the insurance people with disabilities are given. Guess what - you certainly can have your choice of doctor and can actually keep that personal doctor when you have Medicare. Medicare-insured me had the doctor I really liked for over 30 years until he retired. Medicare isn't perfect right now, but if everyone, rich and poor, had exactly the same single health care option instead of what's possible with out present multi-tiered system, you can bet that we would all have good health care.

And Joe, stop worrying about that Trump bugaboo of "socialism" in the Democratic party. This McCarthy-ish paranoia is so out of date as to be irrelevant. When your house is burning down and the fire department comes to help, do you think of that as socialism? When you check a book out of the public library, is that socialism? When your child goes to public school - socialism? Almost all modern societies, including ours, have a mix of capitalism and socialism, and I'm not talking about Venezuela ... think the UK, the Scandinavian countries, Canada, etc. Government sponsored programs are not the enemy - we're a community, so let's start acting like one.