Below is a mixture of quotes from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.

“Well, I think it [healthcare] should be a right for every American.”

“Everybody who wants it [healthcare] can buy it and it’s affordable.”

“I believe absolutely passionately that we must have universal health care. It is a moral responsibility.”

“But for the most it’s going to be a private plan and people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans with lots of different competition with lots of competitors with great companies and they can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything.”

“Given the money we spend on health care, we should be able to provide basic coverage to everyone.”

“The government’s gonna pay for it [healthcare].”

“They’re going to be taken care of. I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people.”

“Everybody’s got to be covered.”

Can you tell me the difference between any of the above quotes? Better yet, before reading the rest of this post, can you accurately guess who said them? Last night Donald Trump mumbled his way through various “gotcha questions” on 60 Minutes. And by “gotcha questions,” I mean questions that required Trump to give an answer without using the words “big wall” and “deportation.”  Throughout the interview we learned a lot about Trump; for example, ISIS would be left alone and ended forcefully, simultaneously. However, the best Trump 101 lesson came along when he talked in support of universal healthcare, at which point I mulled over how well I believe Trumpcare would go over. The Hindenburg came to mind.

In the first GOP debate, Donald praised the healthcare systems in Canada and Scotland, and now he is touting such healthcare reform here in the United States. See footage of the first debate below:

And again last night:

Trump refers to Obamacare as a “disaster,” yet Trump financially aided in the Democratic Congressional takeover back in 06′, which happens to be the same liberal majority that passed the ACA. Meanwhile those evil establishment Republicans sat with their hands tied, unable to stop the train wreck that Trump has now hoisted himself upon as his own self-built stage of debris. But I’m sure that after it was passed he realized he was wrong, right? I mean, that’s got to be why he gave Harry Reid another $10,400 in 2010…

Canada:  “As far as single payer, it works in Canada.”

So, let’s look back to 2010.

Waited two months or more to see a specialist:
Canada: 41%
United States: 9%

Waited four months or more for elective surgery:
Canada: 25%
United States: 7%

The former President of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Brian Day, once said the following:

“delayed care often transforms an acute and potentially reversible illness or injury into a chronic, irreversible condition that involves permanent disability.”

He also said the following in June of this year:

In 2007, a Medical Post survey of 285 physicians revealed that 57 per cent had experienced patients deteriorating, and an astounding 26 per cent had patients had died, while on a wait list. Is this a system worth preserving? In the 11 years that have passed since the first ministers boasted of their “deal for a decade” plan to fix the system, access has worsened and promises have been broken. Critics of that era were correct.

Forbes noted Canadian healthcare issues in this article back in 2014:

New research also suggests that wait times for medically necessary procedures may be associated with increased mortality. A recent reportconcluded that between 25,456 and 63,090 Canadian women may have died as a result of increased wait times between 1993 and 2009. Large as this number is, it doesn’t even begin to quantify the possibility of increased disability, poorer quality of life, and mental stress as a result of protracted wait times.

He continues:

Discussion of the Canadian model is worthy of inclusion in such a debate, but more in terms of “what to avoid” than as a model for reform. The reality of Canadian health care is that it is comparatively expensive and imposes enormous costs on Canadians in the form of waiting for services, and limited access to physicians and medical technology.

See, elitists like Donald Trump would never have to worry about such issues because – just like in Canada – he would pay to be taken care of in a timely manner. Those who tout Canadian healthcare would benefit from being in the “Buffaloed” category. Meaning they wouldn’t live in pain while sitting in the queue with everyone else, similar to how the rich in Canada go to Buffalo with their private insurance and receive care immediately (hence the term). Just as we knew Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, and Reid would never be denied cancer treatment by a death panel, we can be sure Trump will never sit for 2 months in pain waiting for a knee replacement.

Scotland, which he also mentioned, isn’t even worth debating because their system is unique and the United States could never mimic it. It has its flaws, and is often juggled around in instability. Also, take into account that all of Scotland has a smaller population than New York City, and most will find that using them as a comparison to America regarding healthcare is just, well, ignorant.

My fellow Victory Girl noted the following in her article this morning, which you can read here:

As someone who has worked in health insurance, and now deals with it intensely at the consumer level due to my children’s special needs, the promise that people “can have everything” makes me physically ill. The short answer is no, people can’t have everything when it comes to health insurance and not end up in a single-payer system. And even in single-payer, you can’t have everything because there’s never enough of anything. If you want proof, just look at the VA scandal. These were people who WERE promised everything because of their service, and over 300,000 of them have died waiting for health care.

It comes down to this; regardless of who preaches on the benefits of universal healthcare, the idea that it can be successful is a farce. Healthcare as a business always works to the benefit of the people; profit motives and competition lead to ingenuity, discoveries, greater cost control, and effectiveness. Capitalism saves lives, literally. When the government gets its dirty little hands involved, it leads to a decrease in patient flexibility, higher drug costs due to less competition, which also leads to drug availability issues. Patients are encouraged to go to the doctor for minor issues because they can, which then causes availability issues for doctors. Doctors are then no longer paid for their level of treatment, but for the number of patients they treat; quantity over quality. Worse yet, healthcare becomes a game of rations controlled by legislators and quasi-healthcare practitioners. People become a number – a statistic – and are reduced to a game of odds. We’ve watched it in every other country with similar plans, and we’re already seeing it here.

Donald didn’t give any specifics, but he did repeat various liberal talking points which sound eerily familiar to those days – apparently days long forgotten by Trump supporters – when Obama and friends were trying to convince us that the ACA was the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; Trump being one of those “friends.” His mention of “single payer” is interesting since it’s far more government controlled than even Obamacare. So why does Donald want to repeal Obamacare if he just plans on replacing it with its older, more powerful cousin Trumpcare?

So if we’re keeping track, Trump now openly supports the following:

Universal healthcare or Single Payer
Eminent Domain
Financially Punishing Dissenters
Funding Planned Parenthood (Depending on the day)
Abusing Constitutional Rights
Isolationism and Interventionism (Depending on the day hour minute.)
Progressive Tax

Not to mention the fact that it took him until a few months ago to realize that infants shouldn’t be impaled in the womb under the guise of “choice.” Yet we will still dismiss his proclivities and preposterous lies because he is selling an immigration policy that has about as much chance of coming to fruition as I have of obtaining a unicorn and riding it to work tomorrow by taking an alternate route over a rainbow.

Conservatism once meant small government, respect for human life, personal responsibility, law and order, adherence to the Constitution, low taxes, strong defense, colorblindness, defending basic rights, free market, and free people. Suddenly it means talking loudly about big walls and socialist healthcare. Apparently I missed the memo.