Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 214

00:00:00.300 Hey guys, happy Monday. Welcome to Relatable. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day

00:00:06.260 and had a wonderful weekend. Today I am going to tell you guys, I'm going to give you an

00:00:11.820 update and an analysis on the presidential primaries on the Democratic side and everything

00:00:17.220 that is going on there. Some of my thoughts about the frontrunners and the policy proposals

00:00:22.180 that they have put forth and how I think they're going to affect the country, specifically

00:00:26.400 Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan. We're going to at least touch on that. I've done a whole

00:00:30.560 episode on healthcare that you can go listen to, but I'm just going to give you a little

00:00:34.260 bit of a refresher and talk about Pete Buttigieg and his electability. And then if I have time,

00:00:39.440 I'm going to answer some of the questions that you guys sent me via Instagram. It's going

00:00:44.080 to be a great episode and I hope that you guys enjoy it. Let's get into today's episode.

00:00:49.960 So last week, it's been a bit now, last week, Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary.

00:00:58.440 I just said, have you ever said a word so many times and then one day you say it and you're

00:01:03.060 not sure if you're saying it correctly or you read a word that you've read a million times

00:01:07.540 and you read it and you're like, I don't think I know how to pronounce that. That just happened

00:01:11.260 to me when I said New Hampshire. Do I know how to say that? It is New Hampshire, right? Yes,

00:01:15.540 it is. I don't know. I don't really know what goes on in your brain or maybe I'm really the only one

00:01:20.220 that's ever experienced that. Maybe it's like a mom brain thing and you're going to be like,

00:01:23.920 wow, is Allie okay? I think I'm fine. So Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary. Pete

00:01:29.080 Buttigieg came in a close second. They both got the same number of delegates though. So they got

00:01:33.640 nine delegates. Pete Buttigieg actually has more delegates. He has the most delegates out of the

00:01:38.860 Democratic primary field, which I am just surprised by. I mean, this is the mayor of a small town,

00:01:44.080 South Bend, Indiana, and he's basically leading the primary field right now. Although I do think

00:01:49.960 Bernie Sanders is going to surpass him a number of delegates soon. This time, the winner, Bernie

00:01:56.380 Sanders, got the momentous speech that he wasn't able to have in Iowa because that turned out to be

00:02:02.160 a tornado of chaos as we talked about on the podcast. And we didn't get the result until like

00:02:06.740 two days later. Amy Klobuchar came in third. She had a really good debate performance last week.

00:02:12.540 And I think that really helped her in New Hampshire. Elizabeth Warren in fourth. So she's

00:02:18.280 really slid down at one point. We thought that she was at least the media darling and that she was

00:02:23.120 going to be perhaps at least a front runner or a top contender for the Democratic primary. And she

00:02:29.680 has really just slept in Joe Biden in fifth place. Now you'll remember just a few months ago, we were

00:02:36.220 saying Joe Biden is going to take this away. He's just going to win. He's the only, he's the only

00:02:40.860 person that people think can take on Donald Trump. He's going to be able to win over the people in

00:02:46.460 the middle of the country that Donald Trump won over, but maybe have since disaffected. They

00:02:51.780 don't like Donald Trump anymore. They'll vote for Joe Biden. And I kind of think that we thought that

00:02:56.620 he was just going to slip into the nomination without ever performing well at a debate and having

00:03:02.420 all of these media gaffes. But I think it just came too much. Like people realize that he doesn't

00:03:07.820 really have very much to say. And what he does say isn't very passionate. It almost seems like

00:03:13.680 someone put him up to this and he never really wanted to do it in the first place. It's almost

00:03:17.400 like he realized his time is coming on. He's been in politics. I think it's coming up on 125 years

00:03:24.920 this year. And so he's like, yeah, I'm just over this. But whoever is behind him, I think this is

00:03:30.640 just totally a theory. Maybe he wanted to run for president one last hoorah. But I think there were

00:03:35.420 probably people who said, you know what, Joe, you've just got to do it this one last time. He's

00:03:39.600 run for the nomination and lost before, but you've got to do this one last time because you're the

00:03:43.680 only person that can take on Donald Trump. And we all thought that that was true. And Barack Obama

00:03:48.500 was a popular president among Democrats. He is still very popular among Democrats. But there's been a

00:03:54.400 shift that has occurred in the Democratic Party ever since people like AOC, Ilhan Omar came into the

00:04:01.480 House of the House of Representatives. And ever since Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton

00:04:07.220 back in 2016, there has been a shift to the left to where people are even saying that Barack Obama

00:04:14.340 is not woke enough, that he is not progressive enough, that electing someone like Barack Obama

00:04:18.820 or who served with Barack Obama would be a step backwards. The Democratic Party, I don't even know

00:04:24.600 if it's the majority of the Democratic Party, but the leaders of the Democratic Party, the self-declared

00:04:30.600 leaders of the Democratic Party have shifted so far to the radical left that Joe Biden and Barack

00:04:37.100 Obama, they're just kind of left in the dust. People aren't really interested as much anymore

00:04:41.540 in that kind of platform. They want something completely radical. People who support Bernie Sanders,

00:04:47.040 they think that the only way forward is a revolution, a complete upheaval, a complete turning over of all

00:04:53.980 the institutions and traditions and values and systems that have made America objectively

00:05:00.000 the greatest country in the world. Again, as I've said many times, that doesn't mean that America

00:05:04.300 hasn't had dark seasons. That doesn't mean that we haven't made many mistakes. That doesn't mean

00:05:08.600 that we can't criticize parts of American history. Of course we could. If we're objective,

00:05:13.280 truthful people, then of course we can look at American history and say, yeah, some of the things

00:05:18.540 that we have done, some of the things that our government has done, some of the policies that we have put

00:05:22.100 forth, haven't been good. They have been sinful, we can say, from a biblical perspective. But we can

00:05:28.680 also be objective and say, okay, let's look at our founding documents. Let's look at the Constitution

00:05:32.840 and let's look at the values that ideally our country was founded on, that all men were created

00:05:39.420 equal, that were endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them being life,

00:05:43.700 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let's look at the Constitution and the idea that the government

00:05:48.180 recognizes our rights rather than takes away our rights. Let's look at the idea of religious liberty,

00:05:52.980 the idea of free speech, all of these ideals upon which America was founded and have made America so

00:05:58.360 unique and a beacon of liberty in the world. Let's look at those and say, okay, yeah, those were good.

00:06:03.160 Maybe we haven't always lived up to those ideals as a country, but those were good. Let's try to get

00:06:07.680 as close to those as we possibly can, rather than saying, oh, well, the Constitution is a white

00:06:13.100 supremacist document. The Declaration of Independence was written by slaveholders, so we just need to

00:06:18.000 throw them out, all their points are moot. That's not objective. That's emotionalism. That's not

00:06:22.420 logical at all. That's not based on any sort of truth or the kind of idea that is perpetuated at

00:06:27.680 Bernie Sanders rallies saying that we are on stolen land. No, we're not on stolen land. We are on

00:06:33.160 conquered land like virtually every single country in the world is on. And again, I'm not saying that

00:06:38.400 there weren't mistakes made in the conquering of the soil that we are now on. We can, again,

00:06:44.740 criticize that, but to say that America is somehow illegitimate and that we really need to just

00:06:49.460 kind of start from scratch because our founding was so corrupted and so bad because we are on quote

00:06:56.060 stolen land and because the founders owned slaves. Again, that's not objective. We should look at the

00:07:02.260 ideas and the ideals upon which America was founded by imperfect, sinful people and say,

00:07:08.680 are those good ideas and ideals when they're implemented well, do they create human flourishing?

00:07:14.860 And the answer is yes. So every mistake that America has made, whether it is slavery, whether

00:07:20.140 it's Jim Crow, whether it is a Chinese Chinese worked railroads, whether it is Japanese internment

00:07:27.680 camps. So all of the things that America has done really poorly throughout our history, they haven't

00:07:33.340 been because our founding was inherently corrupt or because our founding was inherently bad. Every

00:07:40.500 mistake that we have made is a step further away from those ideas and ideals upon which America was

00:07:46.660 founded. They're not because of them. So they're despite those ideas and ideals, not because of those

00:07:52.300 ideas and ideals. So the premise of someone like Bernie Sanders saying, oh, well, look at all these bad

00:07:57.740 things we've done. We need a revolution. We need to we need to create a fundamentally different country

00:08:04.280 because of all of these mistakes that we have made. They misunderstand the goodness and the genius of

00:08:12.300 our founding and their lack of desire to get closer to those ideals shows that they really don't

00:08:19.120 understand history. And they take for granted how much good America has done. Yes, bad, but a whole lot

00:08:25.280 of good not just for the people in our country, but for the entire world. There is a reason, as I've said

00:08:31.200 so many times, thousands of people risk their lives every year, risk their or give their money, give their

00:08:38.500 time to come here. There is a reason why people come here legally. They wait in line for years. They spend

00:08:43.440 every dime that they have to become citizens of this country. There is a reason why America has been

00:08:50.460 able to bring so many people out of economic distress, out of poverty, out of the chains of

00:08:56.980 communism and socialism and free them and give them not free stuff, but freedom. That is the beauty of

00:09:05.320 American greatness. That doesn't mean some people say, well, it's not Christian to say that America is

00:09:10.700 the greatest country in the world. I'm not saying that Americans are the greatest people in the world,

00:09:15.100 that we're inherently better than anyone in any other country. Of course, that's not true from a

00:09:19.340 biblical perspective. I mean, America is not in the Bible. I don't think that America has replaced,

00:09:24.540 you know, the idea that America has replaced Israel as God's chosen country. No. Do I believe that God

00:09:31.040 has blessed America uniquely? Yes, I do. And do I believe that the ideas upon which we were founded

00:09:36.960 were inspired by the creator of the universe? Absolutely, I do. Imperfectly implemented? Yes.

00:09:43.420 But in a very inspired way, founded or created? Yes, I do. Again, that doesn't mean that we have a

00:09:52.380 special place in heaven. That doesn't mean that we have special favor of God. That doesn't mean that

00:09:56.660 we are more important than people that are outside of the country. It just means that we can look at how

00:10:01.740 we were founded. We can look at the good that we have done. Far more good than bad. Not just in the

00:10:07.720 country, but throughout the world. And we can just thank God for that. We can say, wow, with all the mistakes

00:10:13.420 God has been patient. God has been gracious. God has been merciful in the United States of America.

00:10:18.200 I mean, as a pro-life person, I can tell you that I think America is very imperfect. That we have

00:10:23.900 slaughtered millions and millions of unborn, defenseless, innocent babies in the name of

00:10:31.680 choice. Of course, I don't think America is perfect. Of course, I don't. But am I able to look at that

00:10:38.880 evil? What I think is the most, one of the most, if not the most grievous sins and stains on American

00:10:46.080 history, I can still look at that and say, but we've also done, we've also done a lot of good.

00:10:51.340 And a lot of people have flourished because of the freedom that God has graciously allowed to thrive

00:10:58.120 in the United States and even because of the United States throughout the world. So I just disagree

00:11:04.080 fundamentally with what has become a large portion of the democratic platform. I don't think all

00:11:10.100 Democrats hate America. I don't think all Democrats buy this crazy wokeness that we were, that we were

00:11:16.520 founded on stolen land and everything about America is bad, that capitalism is bad. Capitalism has lifted

00:11:21.460 more people out of poverty than any other system ever has. Capitalism perfect, of course not, because it's

00:11:29.380 created by humans, it's filled with humans and humans are sinful. So there are going to be problems

00:11:33.760 with it. But has it been categorically in every single instance, better and more positive for

00:11:40.440 humanity than any government program? Absolutely. A hundred percent it has. It has slashed global

00:11:46.700 poverty, poverty rates by huge margins since the 1970s and it continues to do so. Not perfect,

00:11:53.840 but is it best? Yes, of course. Even AOC said that in a PBS interview not that long ago. Now,

00:12:00.420 I think she got tripped up on her words, but yes, it has been the best system. So I just completely

00:12:06.020 disagree with the premise of not just a large portion of the democratic party, but specifically

00:12:11.000 Bernie Sanders, who seems to be leading the field and headed towards possibly a nomination. We do have

00:12:16.560 a bit of a ways to go, but guys, he is a full blown communist. Now people say, no,

00:12:22.120 he's just a democratic socialist, just democratic socialist. But as I've heard other commentators

00:12:27.980 say, someone should ask him to distinguish between his views as a quote, democratic socialist

00:12:34.880 and communist. He said several years ago that he doesn't mind if people call him a communist,

00:12:40.940 that he's okay with that. So I would love to hear him distinguish between what his views are as a

00:12:45.800 democratic socialist and what someone's views are as a communist. I mean, he's advocated for the

00:12:51.020 nationalization of basically all of our industries. So what did, I mean, he honeymooted the USSR.

00:12:57.460 What is the difference between Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist and Bernie Sanders,

00:13:02.080 the communist. Now he might know that he can't say communist because it's still taboo,

00:13:06.800 but we're getting there. I mean, socialist used to be taboo just a little bit ago,

00:13:10.880 and it might be, uh, you know, in some circles, certainly in our circles, but it's getting less and

00:13:15.860 less that way. People are starting to normalize it. People are getting rid of the stigma of socialism

00:13:21.520 and saying, yeah, it's totally fine. And here's the thing. I think that people think that socialism

00:13:28.300 is just that your life will be exactly the same as it is now. It's just that other people who don't

00:13:35.040 have as much as you do will have more opportunities. That's not true. That is not what socialism is.

00:13:40.640 And I want to take a look specifically, specifically at healthcare and, uh, Bernie Sanders's healthcare

00:13:47.260 plan. And I really was going to get into more of mayor Pete. And I think I am going to talk about

00:13:51.440 mayor Pete and his electability. If he somehow against the odds that at least I have in my head

00:13:57.480 becomes the nominee, I do want to talk about that, but let's talk about, let's talk about the healthcare

00:14:02.820 system that Bernie Sanders is pushing forward. Like I said, I've done an entire, uh, episode on that

00:14:09.620 before and you can go listen to it. It's just titled healthcare. So you can type in healthcare

00:14:13.680 relatable and you can listen to it or you can watch it on YouTube. And so I'm just kind of get

00:14:18.480 a given overview because I think a lot of people are confused. I think a lot of people just hear,

00:14:23.740 oh yeah, everyone deserves healthcare. Healthcare is a human right. That sounds good and compassionate.

00:14:27.780 My life is not going to change that much. It's just being generous to other people, but that's

00:14:32.800 of course not the case. Okay. Let's keep going on this. I want to talk to you guys a little bit

00:14:36.800 about healthcare. Apparently this is like the number one issue that people care about because

00:14:40.640 healthcare costs are incredibly high. And you know what? Just for those of you who say I don't have

00:14:45.540 any nuance, I've got nuance on this. By the way, people who say I don't have nuance, they don't

00:14:51.160 actually listen to the podcast. If you listen to this podcast, you will not be wanting for nuance.

00:14:55.940 Now I am never in pursuit of nuance. I think people who pursue nuance end up thinking way too hard

00:15:01.660 about things that are just not that complicated. I'm in pursuit of truth, which sometimes is nuanced

00:15:07.240 and sometimes is not. So on certain topics, you might find that I have some nuance, but not on

00:15:13.700 every single topic. I really, that's one of my pet peeves. When people in politics, especially people

00:15:19.420 with theology, they're like, ooh, this thing has been said so many times. I'm going to try a new way to

00:15:25.780 break that down. I love doing that when there is something to actually break down or refute with

00:15:30.680 biblical truth. But when something is just true, when something is just biblical truth, it doesn't

00:15:35.940 matter how many times it's been said. It doesn't matter how many people say it or how popular the

00:15:39.980 phrase is. If something is true, it doesn't need your nuance. It doesn't need your addition to it.

00:15:45.320 It just, that just really bothers me. So, but I do have nuance when it comes to this healthcare stuff.

00:15:51.160 I'm not just going to tell you how bad socialized healthcare is, although it is really bad. I'm going

00:15:55.180 to tell you a little bit about my experiences and my problems with the healthcare and insurance

00:16:00.200 system that we currently have. So, when people think Bernie Sanders socialized healthcare,

00:16:06.880 they think, okay, everything's going to stay the same for everyone. Just more people are going to

00:16:10.880 get healthcare, but that is not true. So, Pete Buttigieg believes there should be healthcare for

00:16:14.780 all. So, everyone has access to a public option. Bernie Sanders doesn't believe that. He believes

00:16:19.400 that you need to be forced off of your private insurance, no matter how much you like it,

00:16:23.320 and you have to be forced onto Medicare. So, you have to be forced onto government-run healthcare,

00:16:28.640 no matter what. That's the only insurance you have. So, you don't get a choice in that. You are

00:16:32.360 forced off the healthcare coverage that you have and onto the government-run healthcare system,

00:16:38.700 no matter the government's healthcare coverage, no matter how much you hate it. It doesn't matter.

00:16:45.260 So, when people are talking about this, they point to the NHS and the UK, and they say,

00:16:49.780 look, it's so great over there in the UK. They don't have to pay anything. Well, here's a little

00:16:54.700 secret. Do you know where the rich people go in the UK to get their healthcare services? They don't

00:17:00.220 go to the government-run hospitals. They don't go to the government-run healthcare centers. They go

00:17:05.540 to private hospitals. Many of them are run by Americans, by the way. So, when really rich women

00:17:11.020 want to give birth, they're not going to the government-run hospitals. They're going to these

00:17:14.520 private hospitals. These private hospitals don't take insurance at all, but if you happen to be really

00:17:19.180 rich, you can pay out of pocket for your healthcare services, which a lot of rich people

00:17:22.920 in the UK end up doing. Why? Because the services are better. Because profits, and here's what Bernie

00:17:28.640 Sanders and AOC need to understand, profit is not inherently evil. Profit can be a motivation for

00:17:35.160 innovation. Now, if profit is placed over people, can that lead to corruption? Does it definitely lead

00:17:41.580 to corruption? Absolutely. So, on that, I will agree with Bernie Sanders and AOC. But when you take away

00:17:46.920 profit almost completely, as Medicare for All would do, the profit margins would be razor thin.

00:17:52.420 Then you lose motivation for innovation. You lose quality. You lose top-notch doctors and nurses

00:17:58.200 and staff because it is not evil to care about making money to be able to provide for yourself

00:18:03.040 and your family. And so, people just leave the industry. You shut down hospitals completely.

00:18:08.360 There is a reason America leads the world in healthcare innovation. There is a reason private

00:18:14.140 hospitals in the UK mimic American hospitals and not the other way around. There is a reason why when

00:18:19.860 people have a serious illness, cancer, other life-threatening diseases, that they expend all

00:18:25.240 of their resources to come here to get treated. In 2018, in the UK, 50,000, quote, non-urgent surgeries

00:18:34.540 were canceled during flu season because they were understaffed. The NHS, by the way, in the UK has been

00:18:39.980 around for 70 years and they still have not figured out to handle flu season. So, I don't think the NHS

00:18:47.560 is doing quite as well as people say that it is. Canada also has, quote, free healthcare. Free

00:18:53.560 healthcare obviously means paid for by the taxpayer. And in 2016, Canadians waited an average of five

00:18:59.880 months for specialized treatments. Five months. That's really not good if you've got a dire situation

00:19:06.400 going on. So, yes, these healthcare systems are awesome unless you get sick. They're awesome unless

00:19:12.200 you need surgery or treatment for a serious illness. Then you are still screwed unless you are mega

00:19:18.120 wealthy and you can pay for private treatment or you can come to the United States. In America, if you

00:19:24.000 find out that you have cancer today and you have healthcare coverage, most of the time you can start

00:19:28.900 treatment tomorrow or at the latest next week, things move very quickly. Now, here's the nuance.

00:19:34.280 Is our system perfect? No. And we shouldn't pretend that it is. There's a reason why this is the number

00:19:40.880 one issue for a lot of Americans. Our system is not perfect. There are a lot of good parts about it,

00:19:46.660 like I've already listed, but our system is not perfect. A lot of Americans are drowning in their

00:19:51.800 healthcare bills. Their deductibles are too high. Many Americans feel that doctors and hospitals are driven

00:19:57.800 too much by profits. This is a conversation, for example, in circles that I run in among moms,

00:20:04.020 especially online, how expensive it is in the United States to give birth. And there are other

00:20:09.660 moms in Australia saying, oh, I didn't have to pay anything. Of course, they do have to pay in taxes,

00:20:13.360 but they're saying, oh, you know, it's all great in the UK and in Canada and Australia. Of course,

00:20:20.600 as we've already talked about, there are problems with that. But people in America,

00:20:24.300 moms in America talk about how ridiculously expensive it is to have a baby in the United States,

00:20:29.240 especially if you have a C-section. So you not only have an invasive surgery, but you have to

00:20:33.960 stay in the hospital for longer. Or if your baby is in the NICU, I had a C-section. And though I

00:20:39.840 didn't realize it in the moment, I can now look back and say for sure that it was very likely a

00:20:45.200 totally unnecessary C-section. I feel that I was pressured into it. I was given a very short window

00:20:51.440 of time to labor. And even though I was doing perfectly fine, didn't have any epidural or anything

00:20:56.980 like that, I was doing perfectly fine. The baby was doing perfectly fine. Heart rate was great.

00:21:01.500 The reason why I had a C-section, I just was tired and I didn't know it in the moment that this was

00:21:06.660 probably a form of manipulation. I was told you're not going to like the doctor on call tomorrow.

00:21:12.440 So if we let you labor and you want this doctor to deliver your baby, who is such a great doctor,

00:21:18.720 then we're going to need to do a C-section. That was the sole reason I was told, the main reason I

00:21:24.840 should say. I was told I was also not progressing, even though I had such a small window to actually

00:21:30.020 labor. That was the main reason I was given. Not for my health, not for the baby's health. There

00:21:35.420 was nothing going on wrong. My blood pressure wasn't high. The baby's heart rate wasn't

00:21:39.500 decelerating. There was nothing going on health-wise besides the main reason being, yes, I wasn't

00:21:45.560 progressing, but it was only a very short amount of time that I was actually given to labor. It was like

00:21:50.800 five hours and they said, you know what? You're not going to like the doctor on call tomorrow.

00:21:54.420 If you keep going until tomorrow, you're going to have that doctor. He's going to have to deliver

00:21:58.200 your baby. And so if you want this doctor to deliver, you should just get a C-section. Well,

00:22:02.500 I can't say it was their choice. It was our choice, my husband and my choice that we made,

00:22:06.740 but we just didn't know any better. We didn't know any better. And so when you're in a room with

00:22:10.880 doctors and nurses telling you, yeah, you should just do it. You're tired. You're in labor.

00:22:14.320 You just do it. Now, looking back and I realize how much more hospitals make for C-sections,

00:22:21.540 you do kind of wonder, okay, are they motivated too much by profit? And C-section recovery,

00:22:27.480 by the way, is no joke. I know that it's also, it can be difficult to recover from a regular

00:22:33.080 delivery, but C-section recovery is no joke. And to think that possibly this was unnecessary

00:22:38.280 and possibly, I don't know, I do not know, possibly motivated in any way by anything other

00:22:45.340 than my health, possibly for profits, it does kind of make you wonder about the system. And

00:22:51.800 especially, and I don't think this specific doctor was thinking about that. He has a very

00:22:55.400 good reputation and I love him. This just happened to be not a great situation, how the whole birth

00:23:00.920 went down. But it does make you wonder when you look at the statistics for this particular hospital

00:23:05.980 and other hospitals of the C-section rate that is especially high for women who have low-risk

00:23:12.940 pregnancies and should have low-risk births, non-emergency sections, and how much more they

00:23:19.180 happen to make on that and how much more they make on the hospital stay. You do wonder, are hospitals,

00:23:25.200 are insurance companies motivated too much by profits? And is it putting mothers and other people

00:23:32.720 with other kinds of procedures or illnesses that are going on, is it putting them at risk because

00:23:39.180 they are given unnecessary care or treatments just because it makes more money or just because it's

00:23:45.780 convenient as well? I think convenience can be a huge thing when you put profits over people. So just that

00:23:52.400 microcosm of the healthcare system that I have experienced, I realize that it's not perfect. I realize that if

00:23:59.720 profit is a motivation over the care of the patient, that that is a problem. Obviously, it turned out

00:24:05.300 fine for me. I'm healthy. Baby's healthy. Recovery was great. That's not true for everyone. And I'm not

00:24:11.360 just talking about C-sections, but other procedures. So I realize that there might need to be a shift with

00:24:18.000 how things work. And we'll talk about some of the solutions. But Bernie's solution, that, okay,

00:24:24.480 we've got problems with healthcare costs. We've got problems with, you know, hospitals, insurance

00:24:29.500 companies caring too much about profit in some cases, not all hospitals, but in some cases, the

00:24:35.640 solution, Medicare for all doesn't actually account for that. It doesn't actually help. It doesn't help

00:24:41.040 the quality of our care because the problem is not coverage. He keeps saying everyone needs to be

00:24:47.400 covered. Not everyone is covered. Well, 90%, 90% of Americans are covered by some kind

00:24:54.460 of health coverage. That's a lot. So for the majority of Americans who are saying, hey,

00:24:59.120 healthcare is my number one issue. They're not worried about whether or not they're covered.

00:25:02.460 They're worried about the cost of their care and Medicare for all. It doesn't ultimately,

00:25:08.480 or it doesn't well or efficiently or effectively solve that problem because we still got the problem

00:25:14.000 of being understaffed, of being on wait lists, decimating hospitals, having a lower quality of care.

00:25:20.620 And so a lot of people really like their healthcare coverage, but they would like the cost of care to

00:25:26.420 go down. The cost of prescription drugs has risen by 69% in the past 20 years. Our Republicans,

00:25:33.740 this is a proposal though, to actually address that specific issue that Bernie Sanders isn't

00:25:39.080 effectively or efficiently going to address through Medicare for all. Republicans have proposed the

00:25:43.540 healthcare choice proposal. They've proposed some other things. The Trump administration

00:25:47.000 has proposed some solutions as well, but the healthcare choice proposal would make coverage

00:25:52.260 far more affordable, lowering premiums by up to 32%, according to the Center for Health and Economy.

00:25:58.500 Moreover, it would ensure that everyone could access a quality private coverage arrangement of their

00:26:04.600 choice. Patients would be able to choose the coverage arrangement that works best for them from a

00:26:08.720 wide array of options, including direct primary care, short-term limited duration plans,

00:26:13.580 catastrophic coverage, or gold-plated Cadillac coverage, so to speak.

00:26:18.840 So Medicare for all is only going to make matters worse. Yes, it would make sure that everyone is

00:26:24.480 covered. So just the 10% of Americans that currently aren't covered, 90% are, but that's not the main

00:26:31.620 problem. The main problem is a high cost of healthcare. People want lower deductibles. They want a lower

00:26:39.020 healthcare cost. And there is a better, more efficient, more economically sensible solution to

00:26:45.140 that that creates choice, that creates or that maintains innovation, that maintains profit and

00:26:52.120 maintains quality of care. It's really just about control for people like Bernie Sanders. They want

00:26:58.140 to be able to control the healthcare system. But if we look at the healthcare systems that are controlled

00:27:02.420 by the government, while there may be some benefits, while there may be some goods, they don't match the

00:27:07.680 quality of care that people are able to get in the United States, even with the flaws of our current

00:27:12.440 system. And so someone like Pete Buttigieg coming along and saying, hey, I believe in healthcare for

00:27:20.200 all. I don't believe in Medicare for all. So he's saying you can keep your private insurance if you

00:27:24.580 like your private insurance, but you're going to get on, you're going to get on public, you're going to

00:27:29.900 get on Medicare, you're going to be guaranteed Medicare. If you don't like your private insurance or you

00:27:34.020 don't have private insurance, it's not that different than what we've got going right now.

00:27:38.900 Again, I think that they need to work on creating and addressing better solutions for the cost

00:27:44.860 of healthcare. I mean, Bernie Sanders complains a lot about the cost of healthcare, but he doesn't

00:27:49.840 talk very much about how Medicare for all is going to help that, especially if our taxes are going up

00:27:54.280 so drastically. He doesn't actually know how many trillions of dollars Medicare for all is going to

00:27:59.400 cost or how you're going to make up for the fact that the medical industry, which is going to be

00:28:03.460 slashed dramatically by Medicare for all, makes up 18% of our economy, not even including,

00:28:10.020 or maybe partly including the insurance companies. And so how are we going to, how do we make up for

00:28:15.660 that? How do we make up for that? He doesn't have a solution to that, but his supporters don't care

00:28:20.300 about his vagueness. They just care that it sounds compassionate, but we have to be able to know how

00:28:24.800 much this is going to cost, how much more we're going to have to pay in taxes, how logistically it's going

00:28:29.400 to work in the hospitals, how much longer we're going to have to wait for care, if we're going to

00:28:33.620 be able to access the care that we want. The celebrities who are talking about, oh, we need

00:28:38.560 healthcare for all, this is a social justice issue. They're going to be able to pay out of pocket

00:28:43.140 without insurance, go to the private hospitals that are still going to exist that are motivated

00:28:48.840 or that are making some kind of profit, not the government run one. So they are not affected by it,

00:28:55.120 as well as all of the policies that they advocate for. They're not affected by the things that affect

00:29:00.360 the average person like you and me. So people look at Bernie Sanders and they see this guy who was

00:29:06.400 full of fire, who was full of ideas. By the way, his supporters, his trolls online are like, they are

00:29:12.940 second to none. You think some of you out there think MAGA supporters are nasty. Bernie Sanders

00:29:18.180 supporters, ma'am. I mean, his campaign had a, they, you know, they had the whole accusation

00:29:24.380 in 2016 of being sexist and of running a sexist campaign and having sexist staffers where there

00:29:33.060 were reports of sexual harassment. And he really had no explanation for that, except for just kind of

00:29:39.240 saying, I'm sorry, but those are a lot of the people that support Bernie Sanders. And you can't say

00:29:45.280 that every politician is responsible for all of their supporters. There are, of course,

00:29:49.760 nasty supporters of every single politician. But before you say anything about MAGA people,

00:29:55.420 before you say anything about Trump supporters, I mean, look at some of the absolutely nasty things

00:30:01.180 that Bernie Sanders supporters say online. They will attack any politician, doesn't matter,

00:30:06.100 Democrat, independent, whatever it is that goes up against Bernie Sanders. I mean, attack them

00:30:11.120 personally. The things that were said to, for example, Meghan McCain the other day,

00:30:15.840 who just simply pointed out, you know, something critical about Bernie Sanders or some of his

00:30:20.360 supporters. I mean, nasty, nasty stuff that is just so sad and so depraved. And so if you're looking,

00:30:29.280 as some Democrats say that they are to like a morally superior alternative to Donald Trump,

00:30:35.420 you don't find it in Bernie Sanders. You don't find it in Bernie Sanders supporters.

00:30:39.180 Like, if you think that he is going to bring the country together, you think that he has like some

00:30:43.540 campaign of love and compassion and caring for people. A lot of the things that people accuse

00:30:49.580 Trump and his supporters of are true of Bernie Sanders and his supporters and are actually true.

00:30:54.920 Some of the things that people accuse Trump and his supporters of aren't true at all,

00:30:58.000 but they are true. You can go see them. They are so nasty to people who support Pete Buttigieg,

00:31:02.900 who support Amy Klobuchar, who support Joe Biden. It's really insane. It's really insane

00:31:09.160 to watch. So if you think that he is going to create a culture that is loving or better for

00:31:14.900 women or are better for the least of these, as we Christians would say, it ain't going to happen

00:31:20.760 under Bernie Sanders. He is a madman who has been yelling at the sky. And just because he's been

00:31:25.580 consistent in his madness doesn't make him a good person. His ideas have always been the same,

00:31:30.420 but they've always been bad ideas. So you don't get any points for consistency if you've been

00:31:33.920 consistently wrong your entire life. Now, is Mayor Pete more electable than Bernie Sanders?

00:31:41.120 I don't know that Bernie Sanders isn't electable, by the way. I don't think we should underestimate

00:31:44.840 him. Unfortunately, he's got a lot of momentum. He's got a lot of people behind him. So he probably

00:31:49.560 would. And if he is the nominee, he will give Trump a run for his money. And so we've got to be just as

00:31:55.300 enthusiastic and just as bold as we have ever been about this election. And I do think that we should

00:32:03.800 take him seriously. I think he is honestly more electable than Pete Buttigieg. Now, I see the

00:32:09.780 appeal of Pete Buttigieg, always have seen the appeal of Pete Buttigieg. Now, when people, when I say

00:32:14.360 that, people are like, oh my gosh, he's a radical Democrat. How can you see the appeal? Obviously,

00:32:19.620 I'm not saying he appeals to me. Like, I am diametrically opposed to every single inch of

00:32:24.440 his ideology, I believe, at least the part that I've seen, at least the part that I've heard and

00:32:30.080 that he's articulated. But I do see his appeal. I do see how he is attractive. He is seen as a

00:32:39.600 moderate compared to Bernie Sanders, but he's actually not. No, he doesn't believe in Medicare

00:32:43.540 for all. He, unlike Bernie Sanders, doesn't believe in, he doesn't believe that felons should

00:32:49.580 be able to vote from prison. That's something that Bernie Sanders believes. He doesn't believe,

00:32:53.200 I don't think. If I am right on this, I don't believe that he believes in decriminalizing border

00:33:00.280 crossings. He's a veteran, so people really like that. I get his appeal because if I were a liberal,

00:33:06.620 I am the demographic that he is appealing to, if I were a liberal. So if I were a liberal,

00:33:11.680 I'd be a liberal Christian. I won't say what I was about to say on that. I would be a liberal

00:33:18.340 Christian. I'm white, graduated from a liberal art, a private liberal arts college. And so people

00:33:24.960 who are on the other side of the aisle who are like me, like Pete Buttigieg, because he sounds like

00:33:30.140 a statesman. He sounds articulate. He sounds measured. He sounds mature. He sounds responsible.

00:33:37.180 I'm just giving you a perspective of what the people who like him see. And I do see that. You

00:33:43.360 might not like him or you might not find him likable. You might not be able to see that perspective,

00:33:47.860 but I'm just telling you, like, this is what people see who like Pete Buttigieg. I've always

00:33:53.160 seen his appeal. I am surprised that he's been able to get as far as he's gotten, but I do see his

00:33:59.400 likability. He is a radical. He believes in, he is pro-choice up until the point of birth. Now you can

00:34:05.260 say, oh, well, that never happens. Well, if that never happens, why do you care that there is

00:34:10.640 restriction on abortion in the third trimester if that never happens? By the way, over 5,500

00:34:17.180 third trimester abortions happen in a year. So it doesn't not ever happen. And it's not always

00:34:24.680 for something like fetal abnormality, which, by the way, I don't believe is a reason for abortion.

00:34:31.460 And in the third trimester, there is no reason to abort a child to save the life of a mother.

00:34:37.840 It just, that doesn't make any sense. Abortion is more risky for the mother than delivery would be.

00:34:43.240 And a child has a very good chance of surviving outside the womb after 27 weeks, even as young

00:34:48.720 as 22 weeks, babies have survived outside the womb. But after 27, 28 weeks, they have a really good

00:34:53.940 chance after spending a few weeks in NICU of being able to survive. And so if you have to save the life

00:34:58.880 of a mother, you induce labor, you have an emergency C-section, there's no reason to kill the child.

00:35:03.920 You still have to take the child out. And so might as well take the child out alive. But Mayor Pete,

00:35:09.560 saying that he is a Christian, by the way, and abiding by the Bible, he believes that a woman

00:35:15.480 should be able to have the choice to abort her child for any reason, for any reason through nine

00:35:20.700 months. And let's not pretend that there aren't women who just make evil and sinful choices and who just

00:35:25.720 would have an abortion up until nine months. Not all women may have the choice of convenience.

00:35:30.720 And a lot of people say, well, it's never convenient. There are evil men and women who

00:35:35.020 make choices that we don't understand. The fact of the matter is, it should be illegal. In the same

00:35:39.880 way that murder of any kind is illegal. Do we just trust men? Do we just trust men to make the right

00:35:45.820 decision? No, we don't need the government saying whether men should or should not rape, whether men

00:35:50.540 should or should not murder, we should just trust them. That's between them and their victim. I don't

00:35:55.820 think that we say that on that. So why do we say that on abortion? Abortion is a killing of a human

00:36:00.200 life. As we have talked about so many times, you can listen to a plethora of podcast episodes that I

00:36:05.420 have done on that particular subject. I also think that Mayor Pete, he's got toxic Christianity,

00:36:10.760 Christianity that picks apart things that Jesus says, presents him as a socialist, and does away with

00:36:16.780 the rest of it because he sees the word of God not as an errant, but as suggestive. And also he

00:36:22.360 obviously doesn't believe in God's definition of marriage between a man and a woman. And so that's

00:36:27.920 going to be an issue for a lot of Christians. And here's the thing. This is what I'm going to end

00:36:32.200 on because I'm already over time. I really actually have to stop. Okay, I'm going to save that. I'm going

00:36:38.740 to save what I was about to say for next time because it's a hot take. It's a hot take that I was going to

00:36:43.980 say about Mayor Pete's electability that a lot of Democrats do not want to admit. But I obviously

00:36:52.620 disagree with people to judge on everything. I see his appeal and I think that he would be bad for

00:36:57.720 the country, but I see why people are voting for him. My prediction is that he's not going to make

00:37:02.080 it that much longer. Now he's made it pretty far. He's done a pretty good job. He's done a pretty good

00:37:06.380 job, but he is not going to make it to the end of the primaries. I don't think my prediction is that

00:37:11.200 Bernie Sanders will be the nominee, which we could do a whole other episode on the dangers of that.

00:37:16.800 Okay, that's all I have for today. And I will see you back here next time.

00:37:41.200 We'll see you back then.

00:37:50.500 Thank you.

00:37:51.640 Thank you.

00:37:51.980 Thank you.

00:38:03.940 You

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 17, 2020

Ep 214 ｜ So This Is Where We Are

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript