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Monday, April 07, 2008
Armstrong Williams :: Townhall.com Columnist
Clinton Fails to Pay the Bills
by Armstrong Williams
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There’s truth in the adage “don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.” This week, the Clinton campaign continues to talk the talk, but have somehow tripped (okay, fell on their faces) over Hillarycare…I mean health care. Although Clinton pronounces it as her passion, news reports out this week indicate she has left $292,000 worth of her own employee’s health insurance premiums unpaid.

What Hillary seems to have forgotten was that “free” healthcare isn’t really free; someone has to pay for it and in this case, it’s her. If her presidential campaign budget can’t handle the cost of health care on this small scale, how does she expect taxpayers to manage that same health program for all Americans? When you stop and look at the litany of domestic programs she’s proposing and the billion dollar price tags that come with them, I suspect she’s not too worried about paying the bills.

Further proof of her unwillingness (or incapability) to pay the bills comes in the form of IOUs. According to sources the cash-strapped Clinton campaign has failed to pay hundreds of various bills over the last few months. Reports are coming from landlords, cleaning services, event coordinators, consultants, pollsters, and caterers about Clinton’s refusal to pay what she owes. To be fair, all presidential candidates during election races have some amount of unpaid bills on the ledger, but the size of Clinton’s debt is staggering.

The Politico reports, “Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.”

But let’s take a break from her irresponsible financial situation and get back to the health care issue. The sheer irony of promising health care to every man, woman and child in this country, yet neglecting her own staff are quite laughable. Yet, truly there’s nothing funny about a presidential candidate’s priorities. These proposals, these tenets that candidates stump on everyday are supposed to draw our eyes and win our hearts. Yet, Hillary’s latest effort appears bent only to win votes, and how the details get worked out (or the costs, for that matter) are inconsequential.

The notion of free and affordable healthcare may sound good to the liberal ear, but nothing in life is really free, no matter how many times you call it “moral” or label it a “fundamental right”. No one, including Hillary, has a problem putting their name on the back of the check, but someone (i.e. the American taxpayer) has to sign the front as well. Universal health care with a single payer system is flawed. And Clinton is writing one check that no American I know wants to help cash – especially hers apparently.

Yes, I am a harsh critic of Senator Clinton. Yes, there are many like me who would love to see her out of the race today. However, let us back up and look at it from her perspective. Whether we admit it or not, she has done a pretty good job of making Senator Barack Obama human and showing that he does in fact bleed. Clinton and her cadre of by-any-means-necessary inner circle believe that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not going away any time soon. This writer will admit that it was a colossal mistake for Obama not to fully disassociate himself from this wayward minister, remove himself as a member of the church and disavow him once and for all.

What we don't know is what else these Clintons have dug up on Obama that convinces them that he will implode. You see, in order for Clinton to have a snowball's chance of winning this nomination, she has to come up with the goods that will be nothing short of causing Obama to serve jail time. What is it that the Clinton camp knows and is circulating throughout the elite media that could just devastate Obama (stay tuned: its coming!) to the point where Clinton will be a shoe-in for the nomination?

Are the Clintons convinced that if they're able to torpedo his campaign that Democrats will be able to unite and elect her in November? This columnist thinks that the Clintons are so blinded by a sense of entitlement, power, arrogance and selfishness that their political navigation system lost its direction long ago. However, it is clear her strategy will destroy what little credibility she has left, weaken Obama beyond recovery, implode the Democratic Party in the process, and assure Senator John McCain the victory for President this November.

Given how politically astute and seasoned these Clintons are why does it appear that they've taken such a diabolical and destructive course? I assure you, we may not understand it, but they know exactly what they're doing. Whatever happens… she owes us.

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About The Author
Armstrong Williams is a widely-syndicated columnist, CEO of the Graham Williams Group, and hosts the Armstrong Williams Show. He is the author of Beyond Blame.
 
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Subject: Continued
-What they do in other countries is usually come here when their system breaks down. Costa Rica is rather tiny to be compared to the US. China, India, and Russia have nothing even in the same league with US health care. Canada and the UK are models of bureaucratic fumbling and delay. People who have the means come here for treatment.

-Finally, I would ask, if we dissolve the American free market and douse the entrepreneurial spirit of those in health care, what will be the source of the next generation of advanced medical equipment, procedures, and pharmaceuticals? One reason other nations have the success they do is they predominantly use American equipment and supplies. Not a lot of advanced technology comes out of the beltway gang.

The real solution of course is to go diametrically the other way. If Washington would simply butt out of health care, energy, housing, agriculture and most other things, we would be vastly more prosperous, healthy, and above all FREE. How do we know this? It worked for nearly 200 years.

Chicaree...
I admire your compassion but that`s where liberalism begins...and ends. You suggested a reasonable discussion so I offer the following:

-When you say "healthcare", you of course mean universal health insurance paid for by the federal government. There is not even an oblique reference to such a thing in the US Constitution. The framers very precisely defined the powers of Congress and the limits of those powers. All other matters were left to the states and the people. Congress is specifically prohibited from wandering beyond those boundaries.

-We can cite anecdotes where an all-knowing wealthy intercessor could make things better in individual cases, but it is highly idealistic to imagine the government being that competent. It is hard to name even one gov`t program outside the military that is efficient, effective, or compassionate. When you are tempted to call on Washington to solve a problem, think of Homeland Security, War on Poverty, War on Drugs. Think of Katrina, the bridge to nowhere, and hundred dollar toilet seats.

-Forty million without health insurance would of course include 20-30 million illegals and several million young people who frankly aren`t interested.

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