Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders used a weekend rally to liken Republican ideas for health care reform to al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
During a Sunday speech in Morgantown, West Virginia, Mr. Sanders informed a rapt audience that terrorist Osama bin Laden’s 9/11 attack would likely pale in comparison to replacing the Affordable Care Act, telling the crowd that nine times as many people would perish — per year — as the 2,973 victims killed New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
“Now obviously nobody can predict exactly how many people will die if they lose their coverage. Nobody can make that prediction,” Mr. Sanders said, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday. “But what experts at the Harvard School of Public Health estimate, is that if 23 million Americans were to be thrown off the insurance they currently have, which is what the House bill would do, up to, up to 28,000 Americans every single year could die. That is nine times more than the tragic losses we suffered on 9/11, every single year.”
Sunday’s remarks echo a June 23 tweet by the senator in which he denied charges of hyperbole.
“Let us be clear and this is not trying to be overly dramatic: Thousands of people will die if the Republican health care bill becomes law,” Mr. Sanders said.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has engaged in similar rhetoric, telling her 2.5 million Twitter followers that Republican lawmakers will fund health care reform with “blood money.”
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“I’ve read the Republican ’health care’ bill,” she tweeted June 22. “This is blood money. They’re paying for tax cuts with American lives.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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