Cal Thomas gets a C- for recent column: his job is in jeopardy at Free Press

I agree with conservative columnist Cal Thomas sometimes. I think he sometimes has moments approaching reasonable thought and arguments that hold up the conservative banner well.

Then he lets his political leanings or allegiances or whatever get in the way of a good argument.

Take his Sunday, Sept. 18 column called "Ron Paul was right."

He starts out the column talking about the recent CNN/Tea Party debate (sponsorship between political organizations and news organizations has already been excoriated  by me in a previous column), and how Wolf Blitzer's question on a hypothetical situation of a young person without health care somehow showed the bias or Blitzer and raised important principles of personal responsibility for all of us.

Then he says: "Normally, a hypothetical ques­tion should not be answered," That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard from a journalist. Blitzer's question may have been hypothetical in a literal sense, but the situation Blitzer described, a young person not buying health insurance but then getting treated and having his health care paid for by the rest of us plays out in this country thousands of times every single day.

It's one of the main reasons we have a health care cost and coverage problem.

Thomas gets a C- for lacking the apparent knowledge that this is one of the main problems.

Thomas says it sparked a necessary and controversial answer from Paul, and that's where Thomas veers into the land of odd thoughts.

Here's Blitzer's question:  “A healthy 30-year- old young man has a good job, makes a good liv­ing, but decides, you know what? I’m not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I’m healthy, I don’t need it. But some­thing terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it. Who’s going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?”

 
Here's Thomas responding: The question was designed to appeal to the status quo with the fed­eral government picking up the tab, but Paul cut through the question to give a powerful answer: “...what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. ... That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody ...”

Blitzer interrupted: “... are you say­ing society should just let him die?”

More Thomas:
 
Some in the audience shouted “ yes.” They must have come from the previous debate where Gov. Rick Perry’s pride in executing convicted murderers was wildly applauded.

Responded Paul: “... We’ve given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume responsibility for ourselves.

Paul essentially went on to say in the old days the churches handled people without health insurance. Yeah, tell that to my pastor. Medical bills can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.



I don't know when the last time Paul was in church or when he last talked to a minister, but the ministers and churches I know would not be shelling out $100,000 to "help out." each of their 20 families that need it.


They'd hold a spaghetti feed


At least Thomas admits a key point here in this whole debate, but he treats it as a minor point.


That is that federal law prohibits any organization from denying someone care at an emergency room because they cannot pay.

Thomas goes on to veer off on another topic about London ministers agreeing to help a jobless family, and if we all did that, our problems would be solved.   

It would be nice, and it happens every day in America, but it will not solve the  health care problem.

Thomas lack of attention to pertinent facts in this debate is hurting the conservative cause.

Since I make the decision to pay for Thomas's column, I'm considering firing him, and maybe picking up a very sharp conservative thinker in David Brooks of the New York Times.This isn't the first Thomas column that really gives a bad name to solid conservative thought.

Readers. What do you think? E-mail me at jspear@mankatofreepress.com