http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/kristol-obamacare-healthcare-watergate/2013/11/01/id/534406 Weekly Standard's Kristol: Obamacare More Damaging Than Watergate
Friday, 01 Nov 2013 11:05 PM
The Affordable Care Act is a prime example of cronyism in President Barack Obama's administration, according to Bill Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard.
"It's big government at work and crony big government at work and the Obama administration at work and Obamacare at work," Kristol told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"[It] just exemplifies why someone of us have been so opposed to Obamacare and so insistent that the core conservative agenda for the next two years . . . has to be to the repeal of Obamacare."
Kristol believes the social engineering behind the healthcare law "really brings home" how radical it is.
"There are a ton of liberal policies that tax people to give benefits to the poor, the elderly, or to students, or others and . . . people like us tend not to like those policies very much, think they're much too extravagant and need to be reformed . . . but that's one thing," he said.
"They still don't really intrude on your personal liberty and your personal life quite the way this does."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich this week compared the Affordable Care Act to the Watergate Scandal, but Kristol believes the healthcare law is far worse.
"Obamacare, honestly, will do more damage to the country than Watergate ever could've done," he said.
"Watergate was stupid, petty, partisan politics and [President Richard] Nixon did misuse the Oval Office and then did lie to the country about it, probably.
"But, here, we have a legislative takeover of a huge percentage of the economy and an area that's so important to everyone's lives. So, no, I haven't really thought of that analogy."
On the question of Iran continuing to build its nuclear weapons program, Kristol believes the United States must intervene. Whether that will happen, he says, is doubtful.
"The United States should prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, but I don't think the Obama administration is going to," he said.
"They don't know they believe in the negotiations. They think there's real hope that we can have an interim deal. I have no confidence, unfortunately, that the U.S. is going to do the right thing here."
Therefore, he said, Israel may have to act on its own in stopping Iran's nuclear might.
"If they do, we should certainly support them. So this could be a huge issue in the next six to nine months. Between Obamacare and Iran, it will bring home how feckless, how irresponsible, and really how damaging the Obama administration has been, unfortunately," Kristol said.
