All the members of Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional
Delegation, as well as the state’s progressive Governor, are supporting former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President rather than the amiable
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Mr. Sanders is the grandfatherly, flower-child
socialist who recently buried Mrs. Clinton in the nation’s first New Hampshire
Democratic Party primary: Sanders 59, Clinton 38, a real whopping.
Some argue that returns from both the Iowa caucuses and the
New Hampshire primary are indicative rather than definitive. Mrs. Clinton, who
has as many cat-lives as Achilles heels, is expected to survive the Sanders
drubbing. Lady Clinton has oodles of cash on hand, a wealth of down-and-dirty political
campaign experience, a morally flawed ex-President husband, and the unenthusiastic
backing of the Democratic Party establishment. Mr. Sanders has so far proven to
be a worthy adversary, but there are cracks in the Sanders foundation that Mrs.
Clinton seems well prepared to exploit in a general election in which the
forward force is not directed by young, anti-establishment revolutionists whose
dearest wish is to refashion the United States into a progressive utopia that
best resembles post-Chavez Venezuela, technically a dream state, in reality a
sulfurous smoldering ruin.
U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal has been pulled into the
Clinton vortex by an affectionate remembrance; the Clintons and Mr. Blumenthal
chummed around together when Bill&Hill were callow students at Yale. U.S.
Senator Chris Murphy, who many think should be supporting the amiable socialist,
has been drawn into the Clinton campaign because of Mrs. Clinton’s recent
aversion to guns. As President, Mrs. Clinton would allow lawyers to sue gun
manufacturers whenever a criminal uses an assault weapon – and remember, any
weapon used in the commission of a crime is, by definition, an assault weapon –
in pursuit of his daily chores. Frequent suits by lawyers may not put a dent in
crime, but it almost certainly would destroy gun manufacturing in Connecticut.
On the other hand, it would vitalize the legal business in Connecticut, where one
cannot shoot a BB gun without putting out the eye of an attorney. Mrs. Clinton,
Mr. Murphy, who appears to be suffering from an advanced case of hoplophobia, and Mr.
Blumenthal are all lawyers.
Mr. Malloy, fastidious in such matters, has said that
Democrats in Connecticut may be put off by the socialist tag Mr. Sanders wears
proudly, as if it were a badge of high courage. A true sans coulotte, Mr. Sanders
appears to be planning a gulag for Wall Street barons and financiers who have
contributed lavishly to the Clinton Foundation and other bought
establishment-Democrats. Thus far in the national campaigns, few have noticed
that anti-establishment candidates become establishment politicians seconds
after they are sworn into office; the term “establishment candidate,” as
defined by party alienated revolutionists, is a vacuous term entirely without
content, except as rhetorical campaign spittle.
Mr. Sanders has only a few strings on his campaign fiddle,
which he continues to strum mercilessly: One involves using the tax code
punitively to punish greedy millionaires; another involves giving a “free”
college education to the millennials he has courted with his siren’s song; and
the last involves replacing Obamacare with universal health care. Running the
figures on Mr. Sanders’ “reforms,” one number cruncher found his new utopia
would add about $10 trillion to the national deficit, now cresting at about $20
trillion, about $10 trillion of which is President Barack Obama’s portion.
Costs are underestimated in the Sanders universal health care plan, which is
underfunded by a hefty $1.1 trillion a year, according to a new analysis by Emory University health care expert Kenneth Thorpe. Mr. Thorpe is not unfriendly to universal
healthcare; he was hired by the Vermont legislature to produce a single-payer proposal
and, retained by progressive Vermont lawmakers in 2014, produced a memo
suggesting alternative ways to expand coverage.
The effect of a universal health care system on Connecticut,
still scrambling for dollars to restore its depleted treasury – Mr. Malloy’s
too ambitious transportation reformation is very costly at $100 billion over a
thirty year period – should be obvious, even to tax-parched progressives in
Connecticut’s General Assembly. A universal health care system would sweep
Connecticut’s insurance industry into the dustbin of history, transforming a
vibrant industry into boutique insurance carriers servicing the few
millionaires not yet imprisoned in Mr. Sanders’ gulag.
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