Bernie Sanders: ‘We Are Not a Compassionate Society’

Sen. Bernie Sanders, grilling President-Elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, declared Wednesday that the United States lacks compassion.

Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) if Americans — by virtue of their citizenship — should have a right to go to a doctor or hospital when they need to.

“So, I don’t think compared to other countries, we are particularly compassionate.”

“Yes, we’re a compassionate society,” said Price, a doctor who represented Georgia in the House of Representatives before Trump tapped him.

Sanders cut him off.

“No, we are not a compassionate society,” he said. “In terms of our relationship with poor and working people, our record is worse than virtually any other country on earth. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any other major country on earth. Half of our senior, older workers have nothing set aside for retirement. So, I don’t think compared to other countries, we are particularly compassionate.”

[lz_third_party align=center includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rq2fqAbEB0″]

As a factual matter, Sanders misfired when he said the U.S. had the highest child poverty rate. According to a 2016 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Turkey, Israel, Spain, and Chile all have higher rates of child poverty than the United States.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) later defended American compassion, noting the generosity of donations to private charity. The sum was $400 billion in 2014, he said.

“We are an incredibly compassionate society, and I think often — this was misplaced in sort of the wonky numbers of this number or that number within health care — how much we do help each other,” he said.

Paul also noted how much money Americans give to those in need who live in other countries.

“All of that is lost in saying that we are this heartless, terrible country — I would just argue the opposite,” he said.

Sanders’ broader point, however, is that most other countries guarantee health care as a right. He asked Price if the United States should copy Canada and other nations where the government has a monopoly on health care financing.

“If you want to talk about other countries’ health care systems, there are consequences to the decisions that they’ve made, just as there are consequences to the decisions that we’ve made,” Price answered. “I believe, and I look forward to working with you to make sure that every single American has access to the highest quality care and coverage that is possible.”

[lz_related_box id=”273255″]

Sanders was not satisfied.

“‘Has access to’ does not mean that they are guaranteed health care,” he said. “I have access to buying a $10 million home. I don’t have the money to do that.”

Price said he is committed to making sure people have feasibility to buy the coverage they want for themselves and their country and not “what the government forces them to buy.”