Jon Stewart Destroys Bill Kristol On Healthcare

Jon Stewart gets Bill Kristol (The Weekly Standard) to admit the the VA system is an exceptional healthcare system but that the rest of Americans don’t deserve it. Kristol gets caught up in the typical GOP talking point trap of “government run healthcare is really awful but it’s so good that private insurance can’t compete.” Republicans are just incoherent on this issue. At least he wasn’t repeating the Faux News talking point that Barack Obama wants to kill your grandmother.

Think Progress has the report:

Kristol — who has urged conservative activists and Republicans to “resist the temptation” to work with Democrats in crafting health reform and instead “go for the kill” — responded that the military “deserves it,” but the American people do not:

STEWART: Are you saying the American public shouldn’t have access to the same quality health care that we give to our better citizens?

KRISTOL: To our soldiers? Absolutely. [Crowd boos]

Kristol explained that soldiers get paid less, but “one way we make it up to” them is by giving them “first-class health care.” “I feel like you’ve trapped me somehow,” Kristol observed. Indeed, Stewart explained the flaw in Kristol’s logic:

STEWART: I just want to get this on record — Bill Kristol just said that the government can run a first-class health care system.

KRISTOL: Sure it can. [Crowd applauds]

STEWART: And a government-run system is better than a private health care system.

Kristol tried to backtrack, saying he wasn’t sure the military system is “better,” and later argued that other government-run systems aren’t providing the best health care.

The full, extended interview is below.