On Tuesday, the National Review’s Iain Murray argued, “The socialization of medicine in the UK is responsible for a lot of problems. The importation of terrorists is just one of them.” On Thursday, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and National Review’s Jerry Bowyer were more explicit about this painfully stupid argument, insisting that national healthcare systems are a “breeding ground for terror.”
Yesterday, on MSNBC, viewers heard Col. Jack Jacobs argue that an “unintended consequence of universal healthcare” is a system in which foreign doctors — presumably, terrorist suspects — are offering patient care.
Also yesterday, the New York Sun’s Daniel Johnson explained to readers:
The [British National Health Service] is the nearest thing to a religion that the British now have. For half a century the British have convinced themselves that the NHS is the envy of the world. It is — for the third world. And it is the third world’s doctors and nurses who keep alive this socialist cult of security from cradle to grave.
No politician dares to reform the NHS, which is still run by its white-coated medical priesthood. Even Margaret Thatcher, who was fearless with terrorists, quailed before the doctors and nurses. “The NHS is safe in our hands,” she said. But the question has long been: are we safe in the NHS’s hands? […]
Anybody with medical qualifications has been able to enter Britain with few questions asked. Of the 277,000 doctors in the NHS, some 128,000 — that is nearly four out of 10 — were trained abroad. It was a loophole that should have been obvious, given Al Qaeda’s declared strategy of recruiting highly educated professionals. The cell that launched last week’s attacks is probably not the only one.
TPM is collecting these references, and for good reason. If one random Fox News clown comes up with a silly idea off the top of his head, it’s easy to dismiss as an amusing accident. But when that same silly idea pops up repeatedly at a variety of outlets, over the course of four days, one starts to wonder if perhaps some kind of official memo has gone out.
Do you suppose “Sicko” has scared the right this much?
Regardless of the motivation, the right has become completely unhinged on the issue.
The eight suspects connected to the recent London terror plots were Muslim men who were doctors or medical professionals. Yesterday on Fox News’ Your World With Neil Cavuto, right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher argued that there is “nothing wrong with suspending the opportunity for Muslim doctors to enter the United States until…we sort this thing out.” He also advocated the practice of racial profiling because “all the terrorists are Muslim.”
One could point out, as Amanda does, that as a result of the London terror attempt, “Muslim doctors here [in the U.S.] say they are trying to be more vocal in denouncing terrorism. They condemned the ‘crazies’ who are ‘misguided’ and did those acts,” while “British Muslims are leading a new campaign condemning the recent attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.”
But what’s the point? The right doesn’t need reason; it has rage.