ThinkProgress's Zach Beauchamp says:
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) equated government programs that prevent people from dying of starvation with slavery in a new profile of his medical practice...Paulâs philosophical excursus is buried in the midst of the too-friendly-for-parody article (it ends with a patient waxing poetic about how Paul âloves peopleâ), but the words are unmistakably Randian. âAs humans, yeah, we do have an obligation to give people water, to give people food, to give people health care,â Paul allowed, âbut itâs not a right because once you conscript people and say, âOh, itâs a right,â then really youâre in charge, itâs servitude, youâre in charge of me and Iâm supposed to do whatever you tell me to do.â
This means that Rand Paul thinks the citizenry of every nation with universal health care is enslaved by its government. Those poor New Zealanders, who pay less than half what Americans do on health care per capita, don't even hear the crack of the whip, or feel the heavy iron shackles around their wrists and ankles. They don't understand that they're living in misery. Maybe we should go liberate them?
