Time magazine editor Mark Halperin on Monday dropped any pretense of objectivity, openly shilling for ObamaCare. The Game Change co-author appeared on Hardball and lamented that opposing government-run health care is a political winner for Republicans: "...I think we shouldn't be the only industrialized democracy that doesn't have universal health care." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Halperin told guest host Michael Smerconish that, unfortunately, "it is not a politically dangerous" position for Senator Mitch McConnell to say, "...We should do things to make health- access to health care easier and more likely, but not guaranteed."
Halperin lamented, "That's the position the Republican Party has pretty much had throughout its history and they don't seem to pay much of a price for it."
This isn't the first time that Halperin lashed out at "immoral" America:
“We’re the only industrialized democracy that doesn’t cover every citizen. That is immoral....to be a country this wealthy and be the only industrialized democracy that hasn’t figured out how to cover everyone.”
— Time senior political analyst Mark Halperin, ex-ABC News political director, on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, August 6, 2009.
A transcript of the exchange can be found below:
Hardball
07/02/12
5:11
MITCH MCCONNELL: Let me tell you what we're not going to do. We're not going to turn the American health care system into a western European system.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Mark Halperin, quick Game Change kind of a question. Does the GOP need to do more than that? People are saying, well, they got to articulate something. Do they? Is articulating opposition enough?MARK HALPERIN: Well, look, unfortunately, because I think we shouldn't be the only industrialized democracy that doesn't have universal health care, it is not a politically dangerous place to be, where Mitch McConnell is. To say, you know what? We should do things to make health- access to health care easier and more likely, but not guaranteed. That's the position the Republican Party has pretty much had throughout its history and they don't seem to pay much of a price for it. I'm not sure given that the current law's unpopular, this is the election where they'll feel on the defensive to take that position. They have some policies that Mitt Romney supports that are some of which are in Paul Ryan's budget, some of which are supported by Senate Republicans that would extend health care in theory to more people.
SMERCONISH: But not comprehensive. Got it.
