Republican Faust Endorses Socialized Medicine

Editor's introduction: Bob Faust is trying to dethrone Marilyn Musgrave, the controversial Republican who represents Colorado's fourth Congressional district and who wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. Chances are excellent that Faust will be soundly defeated in today's primary. Musgrave represents the religious-right wing of her party, while Faust represents the leftist wing. The choices, then, are state power to enforce religious doctrines, or state power to forcibly redistribute wealth. Rock, meet hard place. While Musgrave has made her deal with God, Faust has made his with socialism.

While Faust apparently supports a lower drinking age -- though he's too coy to come out and say it directly -- he clearly supports expanding state power in other areas, in violation of individual rights. He calls for a "National Preventive Health Care Program" (more on this below) and a tax-funded "National University Program." He claims to support the Second Amendment, though he calls for limited -- though unspecified -- "limitations on arms." He also believes "Congress should enact legislation to rent farmland for the placement of wind power generators."

Steve Gresh of the Republican Liberty Caucus recently corresponded with Faust via e-mail. Their exchange is reproduced below, along with a few additional comments.

-- Ari Armstrong, August 10, 2004

Steve Gresh

Bob,

Are you advocating some form of socialized medicine (see the following definition)?

If you are, I (as the VP of the CO chapter of the RLC) will not be able to help with your campaign.

- Steve Gresh

so cial ized medicine

A system for providing medical and hospital care for all at a nominal cost by means of government regulation of health services and subsidies derived from taxation. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, licensed from Houghton Mifflin Company.)

From www.faust4congress.com/health.htm:

The "Faust Health Care Plan" is a basic foundation for a National Preventive Health Care Program that will ensure ALL Americans have health care coverage. This program includes:

Basic Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
Annual Physicals and Immunizations
Freedom of choice to use generic or brand name drugs
Choice for Veterans to use local medical facilities as opposed to being required to only use VA facilities
Reasonable co-pay program
Workers of retirement age who remain employed solely for the purpose of continuing their medical benefits will no longer need to do so.

Under the "Faust Plan," these people will now be free to retire without the worry of whether they will be able to afford medical coverage.

I firmly believe we need these changes to help provide a healthy future for ALL Americans.

Reply from Bob Faust

Steve,

No. My concept uses the current healthcare system. People have the freedom to select the healthcare provider of their choice. The difference is the provider does not have to be the provider your employer selects. You select the provider. If you want to go out of "network", you can without having previous approval. The difference is you pay the difference between the out of network cost and the in network cost. The program is based on a payroll tax, just like Medicare and Medicaid (which become obsolete with my healthcare program). The only involvement the government has is collecting the funds from your paycheck and paying the healthcare providers. I hope this helps. If you still have questions, feel free to give me a call tomorrow night. Anytime after 3 would be fine.

Sincerely,
Bob Faust
Candidate, 4th Congressional District

Steve Gresh Comments

Gee, I guess as long as government doesn't regulate health services, but merely subsidizes healthcare via payroll taxes, then it's not really socialized medicine.

Ari Armstrong Comments

Faust calls for "controlling the cost of health care," something he clearly expects government to do. (Though his text is grammatically ambiguous, the context makes his purposes clear). Thus, Faust's plan obviously entails the regulation of health services. Indeed, whether or not Faust realizes it, more government control of health providers is an inevitable consequence of expanding tax subsidization of medicine. Faust's claim that he does not support socialized medicine, despite the fact that the plan he describes clearly fits the bill, suggests merely that Faust has no idea what he's talking about. He hasn't the slightest inkling of a coherent political philosophy. Thankfully, few seem to take him seriously.