In his New York Times column Friday, economist Paul Krugman went after Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders for their opposition to Obamacare.
Cruz got a swift smackdown, as Krugman described a “teachable moment” for Cruz in Iowa, wherein:
A voter told Mr. Cruz the story of his brother-in-law, a barber who had never been able to afford health insurance. He finally got insurance thanks to Obamacare — and discovered that it was too late. He had terminal cancer, and nothing could be done.
According to Krugman, the voter asked how Cruz’s proposed health care reforms would have helped his brother-in-law before his cancer became terminal. Cruz responded with “boilerplate about government regulations and the usual false claims that Obamacare has destroyed ‘millions of jobs’ and caused premiums to ‘skyrocket.’”
It took one paragraph and two hyperlinks for Krugman to determine “Mr. Cruz has a truth problem.”
Krugman then explained why even some progressives have bashed Obamacare in favor of a single-payer mandate, a tentpole of Sanders' campaign run.
Yes, “America’s health care remains much more expensive than anyone else’s,” Krugman wrote. “But a lot of what I hear from the left is not so much a complaint about how the reform falls short as outrage that private insurers get to play any role.”
“The point is to help the uninsured, not to punish or demonize insurance companies,” Krugman argued. “The last thing progressives should be doing is trash-talking that progress and impugning the motives of people who are fundamentally on their side.”
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