June 19, 2013

Politics

Barney Frank: European countries can afford welfare state because US military protects them

BY: JOEL GEHRKE MARCH 15, 2013 | 12:13 PM
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Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a proponent of single-payer health care, said this morning that European countries can only afford to spend money on the “social safety net” because they don’t have to spend much on defense due to the security provided by the United States military.

“One of things we do is stop subsidizing Western Europe,” Frank said on Morning Joe as he argued for lower military spending. “After their empires crumbled, Europe decided to leave the task of maintaining global security to America so they could use their resources to build their social safety net,” he added, drawing on Zbigneiw Brzezinski’s “Strategic Vision.”

Frank believes that President Obama’s health care law will prepare people to accept the idea of universal single-payer health care. “With regard to health care, I think that once people see that it is to their benefit we could go beyond that to extend the reach,” Frank told The Washington Examiner during an interview in November. “Ultimately, I believe the Medicare system works best and I would be for a national — for everybody using Medicare. And I think people might be supportive after seeing how [Obamacare] works.”

 

 

 

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