For well over a year, the media has given all kinds of coverage to right wing protesters and politicians who call President Obama a socialist. It seems only recently that any media outlets thought about actual socialists what they think about Obama and his policies. CNN reports that co-chair of the Socialist Party USA Billy Wharton says that Obama is no socialist. He’s not even a liberal.
A statement by the Socialist Party USA urges “Vote No on Obama-care!” The real socialists explain their opposition to the Democratic-sponsored reform:
While citizens in most other industrialized nations enjoyed the benefits of publicly administered healthcare from the aftermath of WW II forward, Americans have suffered under a healthcare system dominated by private corporations… [Democratic proposals] will not provide the relief Americans so desperately need. Instead, these reforms were shaped and, in some cases, authored by the very same private interests who have spent decades collecting massive profits by restricting access to care.
The health care reform that Obama signed into law includes provisions that favor insurance consumers and regulate insurance corporations and other provisions that help make insurance affordable. It does not in any sense constitute a “government takeover” of health care; it does not even include a public option to compete with the private system. What real socialists want could almost (but note quite) be described as a government takeover:
What people in this country need is healthcare. It is their right as human beings. The only way to secure this right is to place the healthcare system in public hands–-to remove the profit-motive from the system. Single-payer healthcare… would be a positive step in this direction. It would provide universal access to care to all residents of the United States by abolishing private health insurance companies.
