Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. I had the honor to view the Governor’s splendid presentation. Ok, that’s all I could do of that. After making the crowd wait in the very hot, very stuffy Herbst Theater on what could be one of the hottest days in SF of the year, he strolls in 45 minutes late. I can deal with that, but then he strolls on stage to pronounce how he has “sold California.” Yeah, more like “sold California out,” but I held my tongue. No point getting thrown out of there. I sat through his whole “selling California” lecture and waited for the Q&A portion.
One of the first questions was something to the tune of “Why do we go over there and support the Chinese regime that has been brutal to its citizens, especially the Falun Gong.” Well, I’m pretty sure Arnold didn’t know what or who the Falung Gong was and preceded to say how business is business and how they don’t muddle in the affairs of our government and we shouldn’t mess with theirs. Well, that’s all well and good, but we don’t systematically suppress any religious organizations as the Chinese government does. But, Arnold is no Chinese scholar, so I could understand his confusion.
However, Arnold is supposed to be an expert on California politics. You know, maybe he would know what all of the propositions were on the upcoming ballot. Like say, Proposition 89, the CAN’s clean money initiative. When asked about Prop 89, he hemmed and hawed about how he would have to read the proposition but he supports clean money. Well, ok he supports clean money, but well not so much the clean part. When the moderator asked him whether he actually supported public financing, Arnold immediately said no. Perhaps he should take a look into at least a two sentence summary of all of the propositions. It would be nice to have an informed governor. Frank at CPR has a good post on this.
But what really set me off was Arnold’s absolute denunciation of “universal health care.” In one sentence he said it was unacceptable to have 6.7 million Californians without health care, and then he states his hatred of “universal health care.” He goes on to say how he is against government interference. What is Arnold afraid of about “universal health care.” Is it that universal health care would yield the worst results in terms of cost effectiveness in all Western industrialized nations? Nope, can’t be that, because the U.S. (and our wonderful private insurance system) already hold’s the title for that. Is there any moral argument that you can present to me that those with the least are less worthy of medical than those with the most. I challenge anybody to present me with such an argument. What is more basic of a right than the right to live a healthy life? We owe every one of our citizens, from rich to poor, the same level of care. There should be no distinction, but Arnold is A-OK with such class distinction.
No, what Arnold really fears about the evil “universal health care” is the well of GOP dollars that might dry up. And that is putting money over lives, a morally inexcusable position.