Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Will Debate About Healthcare on CNN Next Week

By Kylie Cheung | Politics | February 1, 2017 |

By Kylie Cheung | Politics | February 1, 2017 |

If the spicy debates are the one thing you actually miss from the hellish presidential campaign trail then alas, rejoice, as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Sen./noted wannabe basketball star Ted Cruz, armed with their polar opposite politics, will debate about healthcare at a special CNN town hall next Tuesday. Both Cruz and Sanders were the top opponents of their respective parties’ eventual presidential nominees, and had some pretty unique views about healthcare.

Sanders himself was never a huge fan of Obamacare, but only because he was adamant in his fight for universal healthcare and recognition of healthcare as an absolute human right. He argued that despite how single-payer healthcare would require raising taxes, disproportionately for the top 1 percent, of course, the vast majority of Americans would save money by having healthcare as a guaranteed right.

Despite his calls for upgrading the Affordable Care Act into universal healthcare, Sanders has been advocating fiercely on behalf of preserving Obamacare with Congress poised to repeal it, throw roughly 30 million Americans off their plans, and, according to some researchers, kill 43,000 Americans annually.

For his own part, Ted Cruz has been identified by many as the “poster boy” for the anti-Obamacare movement, which is honestly the only thing he could realistically be the poster boy of, and all you really need to know about his views on healthcare is that he was unable to respond to a man who confronted him last year about a family member with cancer, alive today because of the Affordable Care Act.

At the end of the day, you’ll notice that there’s a painfully stark difference between the concerns of those for repealing Obamacare, and those who could lose everything as a result of this. Conservatives opposing the ACA are trying to save money; progressives supporting the ACA are trying to save lives.

While a transparent attempt on Cruz’s part to make himself relevant again after being degraded and thoroughly humiliated by Donald Trump last year, the debate promises to be an entertaining showdown of good vs. evil.