Too much of the conservative argument against President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms has surrounded whether they are constitutional, while the real argument is whether it would be effective, senate hopeful Josh Mandel tells Newsmax.TV.
Voters should only look at how the federal government has made a mess of other businesses to realize that a massive takeover of the system would be a failure, he said.
“One of the things conservatives aren’t talking enough about around the country is the fact that government-run healthcare will be bad because the government screws up almost everything that it runs,” said Mandel, who is hoping to unseat Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
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He said the U.S. Postal Service, Freddie Mac, and Amtrak are prime examples of businesses that would succeed if they were run privately, but instead the government has “brought them to the ground, economically.”
“So many of them are upside down,” said Mandel, currently Ohio’s state treasurer. “When you look at their balance sheets, they contrast very starkly with similar type organizations that are run in the private sector.
“What we ought to be talking about is not only the unconstitutionality of the federal government’s takeover of healthcare, but also the fact that the federal government has failed in running the Postal Service, failed in running Freddie, failed in running Amtrak, and so many other organizations so why should we allow them to run our healthcare system?
“We don’t want a healthcare system here in America that looks like Canada or France or the rest of Europe where people have to wait in line for a month to see a doctor and even longer to have a surgery that will save their life.”
Brown, who Mandel slams as being the most liberal senator in the country — “actually to the left of Bernie Sanders who is an avowed Socialist from Vermont” — had been leading Mandel by double-digit figures until a Rasmussen Reports survey at the end of March put them in a 43-43 percent tie.
“Right now we have got Sherrod Brown running around the state espousing his ultra-liberal and Washington-type thinking and people are rejecting it and people are being drawn to the message that we are projecting,” said Mandel. “It’s a message of empowering the free enterprise system, empowering the American entrepreneur, telling the blue-collar workers throughout Ohio we trust you to do your jobs.”
He described Brown’s supporters as being out of touch with mainstream Ohioans. “There is a group that has descended upon Ohio from out-of-state, called Earthjustice. They are running ads in the Senate race against us.
"They are the same people who sued the United States military because they were advancing the argument that Marine Corps and Navy training operations were harming birds and whales somewhere in the ocean. These people are radicals.”
He also slammed Brown for accusing him of cronyism in hiring staff for the treasurer’s office. He pointed out that the state has the highest ratings from both Standard and Poors and Fitch at a time when the national credit rating has been downgraded.
“One of the reasons we have had success in the treasurer’s office is because of the superior staff we put in place. We’ve got this excellent staff of qualified financial professionals with great expertise that we are willing to stack up against any treasurer’s office or fiscal office in any state in the country.”
Mandel said he expects his senate race to be one of the most closely watched in the country due to Ohio’s reputation as a must-win for any president. “We know that the presidential race usually runs through Ohio and the balance of the Senate could very well come down to our race.”
Another thing that could focus attention on the Buckeye State is the possibility that its other senator, Republican Rob Portman is being touted as a potential vice-presidential candidate.
“Sen. Portman is a terrific person. He’s a strong leader, he’s a moral man and he’s one of the most intelligent and balanced decision makers we have in elected office, not only in Washington but in this entire country,” said Mandel. “He would make a terrific vice-president of the United States.”
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