"Why does everyone hate me?!" |
Of course, who was lined up in front of Rendon's office?
None other than then California Nurses Association!
They are angry, and they want blood. They want Rendon's head on a lance.
They want to recall him–and I am more than happy to help, but I want someone else to be Speaker of the State Assembly.
How about Melissa Melendez?
Check out the unions! They are so good at getting lots of people together to make noise, aren't they?!
They love collecting on corners and making people scared, too!
Check out my full video of my exploits among the single-payer advocates here:
Check out the scene on the corner of Rendon's office:
Please repeal Obamacare! And then repeal more of the stupid government rules and regulations hurting our health care system. jacking up prices, and pushing more qualified professionals out.
Some of them were willing to talk to me,
But then this one guy kept following me around, telling other people not to talk to me at all.
Whatever happened to "Love Trumps Hate"?
I would say ""No" to Medicare.
I want health care with clear price guidelines, choice, competition, and quality controls based on free market forceds.
The guy in the dark green shirt tried to harrass me, to scare me off.
FAIL!
This guy also showed up at the January 29th, 2017 LAX protest after Trump issued his first travel ban. It wasn't clear what he was trying to do, whether to support us or to stop us from speaking.
Whatever happened, it is clear that day that he was interested in stirring up trouble and shutting me down.
Major Fail!
Some people were willing to talk to me, even though I had my Trump hat and shirt on:
A lot of left-wing agitators and freuent progressive activists lined up
"Gimme free health care! Gimme gimme!"
I wonder what they think of single-payer health care now that the British Government has determined that they will do nothing to help this 10 month old baby Charlie Gard.
I had to tell this woman to hold her sign right side up:
Here's the second video I took at the single-payer rally:
Now here are the remarks I would like to leave for everyone.
First of all, the single-payer zealots were determined to silence me every way they could. Well, at least this one guy whom I called "buddy", who was on scene to follow me around.
"Whatever happened to "Love Trumps Hate?"" I asked.
They still hate TRump and they still hate anyone who thinks that the government should not have a core function in our health care systems.
I was open and honest with everyone I spoke to, good or bad.
One constant throughout my engagement with the single-payer advocates came down to this:
"There should be no profit in medicine."
Why? Don't doctors and nurses deserve to make money? How do insurance companies make money to ensure that they can insure clients?
Does anyone want to revert to a system where everyone has to pay for everything out of pocket, including long-term care as well as pre-existing conditions? Insurance companies do not do what they do for nothing. No service should be held to such a draconian standard.
This statement will offend people, but I do not care: health care is not a right.
We have a right to seek health care for ourselves as needed, but the argument that doctors, nurses, hospitals medical practitioners of all backgrounds must provide health insurance at the drop of the hat because it is right–that is wrong.
Just calling something a right does not make it more readily available. The laws of supply and demand remain constant regardless.
Other people complained about the middle man in the health insurance industry. Fair enough, but their argument was that the government should phase out insurance companies altogether. Then they would deal with an even worse middle man: the government bureaucracy!
They are worse, much worse. Rationing, incompetence, disease, long lines, corruption, waste, criminal behavior all are the hallmarks of socialized medicine. The costs do not go away, the demands actually get worse.
No one was willing to listen to allowing for free market reforms, competition, transparency through price arrangements, etc.
This is pretty scary stuff, in my view. The single-payer zealots have turned into True Believers, unwilling to challenge the statist status quo of the regressive left. I am certain that the Democratic Party grassroots are even more burned, now that Eric Bauman has become the state party chairman. After all, he sent out a big email detailing his support for single-payer health care to assure the jittery grassroots and delegates.
But then one month later, what happens? The Speaker of the State Assembly shelves the bill because there are no outlines for how to pay for single-payer. While Rendon chooses to blame the Republicans in Washington and the California state senate, the truth is that the state of California simply cannot afford the $400 billion monstrosity.
There was good news on the single-payer, free market trail, too.
First, a good friend of mine–George Susca–came down to protect me in the midst of the South Gate protest. Some of the men and women there were angry and intent on causing harm, but no one dared lift a finger, and Gregory's help was a big part of that.
One man told me about his father, who had served in Canada before and after single-payer health care was adopted. He said that he liked it. Government employees tend to like their jobs, so they won't complain.
But what about the consumers? Canadians face an average waiting time of 20 weeks to see a specialist. Canadians say they like their health care because of the jingoist peace of mind they feel about it–and the fact that many of them do not go to the doctor at all.
Other individual patients have complained to me about government-run healthcare, which leads to massive cost increases and rationing. Some of the people in the single-payer swarm were willing to listen to me, even if they disagreed with me. Many others were hostile, and many of that group are the same liberal protesters who go all over raising hell and causing trouble, agitating against individual citizens who want to be left alone.
For a full discussion on what can be done to ensure better healthcare and access for all, check out this discussion I had with a group of protesters in Sacramento earlier this year:
But at this point, some of the people in the crowd were willing to listen:
Here's the last video, in which the protesters decided to walk away: