The Wonk Room

GOP Ignores America’s ‘Health Care Crisis’ During Convention»

During a town hall event last month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared that the American health care system was “in crisis” and lamented that “if it were not for the energy crisis, we’d be talking a lot more about health care issues”:

There is a health care crisis in America. We would be, if it were not for the energy crisis, we’d be talking a lot more about health care issues. And we have to reform health care in America. And we have to make insurance available and affordable for all Americans. [New Mexico Town Hall, August 20, 2008]

Watch it:

And despite skyrocketing health care costs and millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans, almost all of the prominent speakers at the Republican National Convention ignored the “health care crisis.”

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY), and Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) never addressed health care. Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) only discussed “health insurance” in passing.

On Tuesday, Huckabee, a long-time advocate of wellness and fitness, “said his health care remarks were cut for time restrictions.”