Lieberman, American Health Care, Israeli Health Care, American Right Wing, Israeli Left Wing……..
Senator Joe Lieberman is widely known as a largely one-issue person. That main issue motivated his support for the Iraq War and his active support for McCain-Palin in 2008. This is a gross simplification, but it helps make the point here. Someone mentioned on a radio talk show today that his main issue is Israel. Nothing wrong with that; many Irish and others in the USA still have a passion for the old country. Most Middle Easterners in the USA do as well.
This passion for Israel apparently does not extend to health care. Joe is set against a public option of any kind in a health care reform bill. When it comes to health care, the Israelis are quite sensible: they have a strong public health care system, just like all the European countries do, just like all industrial countries do. That is probably a legacy of their founders, the Labor Party of Ben Gurion and Golda Meir, who dominated Israeli politics until the right wing Likud grew stronger because of the massive influx of Soviet Jews.
When it comes to health care, Lieberman looks toward the health insurance corporations for guidance rather toward Israel. That is one aspect of Israel that he does not admire.
Oddly that other Lieberman (the extreme right wing Israeli Avigdor, not the plain right wing American Joe) supports the Israeli public health system and would not think of dismantling it. If he did, his party will never win an election. Hopefully Joe will never win another election as well.
Cheers
mhg
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