Schock inserts his foot in his mouth again:
“The last time we had this level of socialism being proposed and inexperience at the helm was JIMMY CARTER,” said Schock (who was born four months after Democrat Carter left office in 1981).
I later asked Schock what he meant by the “level of socialism” Obama represents.
“Well, he’s promoting what I would term a government takeover of the health system,” Schock said. “He has said he wants to mandate free college tuition for every student in America.
“Unlike TED KENNEDY (he meant JACK KENNEDY, of course) who said, don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country … he (Obama) says, we’re the wealthiest country in the world; you should get this, you should get that. You’re entitled to this, you’re entitled to that. To me, that’s a move toward socialism.”
Schock was not specific, at that point, on Obama’s programs.
“I’m familiar with what his work was here at the state Capitol, and to me, the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior,” Schock said. “And he has supported what I would consider to be socialistic moves on health care as a state senator.”
“I don’t remember the exact bills,” he said.
JUSTIN DeJONG, the new Illinois spokesman for the Obama campaign, called Schock’s statement on health care misleading and said Schock’s description goes farther than what Obama advocates regarding college costs.
An Obama fact-check Web site says that “Obama has consistently said that if we were starting from scratch, he would support a single-payer system, but now we need to build on the system we have.”
On higher education, Obama wants to create a “universal and fully refundable (tax) credit (that) will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.”
Does Aaron Schock really want to try and play the inexperience card? Seriously…
Jack Kennedy’s quote was taken totally out of context, and actually in the correct context JFK would have supported the idea of universal health care. His famous statement was preceded by these words “a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.” Earlier in the speech he said “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
I remember his speech – I was a 7th grader at the time and I was moved by it and have lived by it. Shortly after this JFK founded the Peace Corps, and I responded with a pledge to serve, which I did after college.
In fact, it was JFK’s words and that desire to serve that led me into this campaign as well, vying with Mr. Schock for the 18th Congressional District.
FWIW, I certainly don’t regard universal health care as a socialistic entitlement either, as we would all pay into it, just as we do medicare, or just as Canadians do into their system through their taxes. However, I would be paying less into a universal health care system than I am now into a private insurance system, and getting more out of it, because of the greater efficiencies, and the fact that those who now lack insurance would be able to avail themselves of less expensive prompt care facilities and such. Check the recent NPR archives for their series on health care in the rest of the developed world, or just talk to Canadian citizens (I ask every Canadian I meet) to learn how good health care could really be.