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September 30th, 2013
10:49 AM ET
Carly Fiorina and Ralph Nader debate Obamacare
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader and former CEO Carly Fiorina debate Obamacare and alternative health care solutions.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader makes the case that government involvement in health care can work.
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Posted by Crossfire staff Filed under: Carly Fiorina • Debates • Health care • Ralph Nader • S.E. Cupp • Stephanie Cutter |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
While our politicians have been bickering for years like idiotic fools, China has been crushing the USA in a war that we don't even know we're in and without even firing a shot.
Bringing manufacturing back home to the USA is going to end up being not only a key to restoring our economy, but to maintaining our national security as well.
* Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like China, where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when these company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
* Chinese firms and state agencies have been implicated in a host of hacking attacks, on targets ranging from leading industrial and technology firms, to the Pentagon and other US government agencies, to the New York Times, Coca-Cola and numerous other companies and industries.
* Oct 2012: The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said U.S. telecommunications operators should not be allowed do business with China's top network equipment makers because potential Chinese state influence on the companies poses a security threat.
* Also most counterfeit goods are produced and manufactured in China, making it the counterfeit capital of the world. In fact, the counterfeiting industry accounts for 8% of China's GDP.
Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the incursion of illegal aliens and the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide.
On the US Department of Commerce's US Census Bureau website there's a graphic showing how our trade imbalance has gotten progressively worse over the entire period from 1989 to the present and how it's really accelerated at an increasely greater rate each year since 1999. We can thank our leaders and the WTO for that.
See for yourself: www(dot)census(dot)gov(slash)foreign-trade(slash)balance(slash)c0004(dot)html
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
The ONLY REAL FIX for the greatest country on earth is to Raise Revenue by Bringing Back Jobs to US Citizens who Pay Income Tax.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
We need American Leaders – Not party-line-politicians!
I don't think 19th century words like "communist" are comprehensive anymore. China has a well managed economy and they are improving the lives of their citizens while ours are declining, stagnated in class warfare.
It's been quite fashionable to cheat, marginalize and swindle American workers for some time now. We can't even make it so they have decent healthcare without great internal conflict.
It's ironic that since so many Americans don't have healthcare it makes it more expensive and China is making a lot of money in American healthcare investments. Allowing Americans to die from the lack of it guarantees those investments will only get better.
Did you happen to see that clip on CNN last year? China put a battleship in the Mediterranean for the first time in the history of the world. And to may have noted the presence of Chinese and Russian ships between the US Ships and Syria recently.
The Citizens of the United States of America need our elected leaders from both parties to start working together to actually start trying to fix the real problems in our country like "out-sourcing", illegal immigration, the out of control costs of health care insurance and our reliance on foreign fuel. Fix them together as Americans! – Because united we'll stand, but divided we'll fall.
Wouldn't it be More Productive if Our Elected Leaders Started Working Together as AMERICANS for AMERICANS and AMERICA, instead of just bickering, stalling and posturing for the next election as democrats and republicans! The American People have had it with this unproductive BS! The way that both parties having been operating for years just stinks! Neither party has really been looking out for the best interests of the US Citizens who elect them and who they're supposed to represent.
It shouldn't be all about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and its citizens. All the single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go!
Devastating annual health insurance cost increases were crushing our business for years before President Obama was elected.
I didn't vote for President Obama, but at least he had the guts to take on the healthcare insurance issue in the first place – Although it would have been better if both sides could have worked together to come up with a better plan.
I don't care which side fixes it – Just fix it.
Something had to be done about the ridiculously high health insurance premiums that are being paid by employers and their employees. Both of whom are paying an unfair share of the burden of costs for the uninsured, who's healthcare costs are averaged in to the hospital's and healthcare provider's costs and then passed onto the insurance companies premiums, plus Medicaid and Medicare. I run a business that employs 21 employees and our premiums were going up anywhere from 18-34% every year for the 12 years before they finally started trying to address this issue. Something's got to be done, but let's get it right.
Wouldn't it be More Productive if Our Elected Leaders Started Working Together as AMERICANS for AMERICANS and AMERICA, instead of just bickering, stalling and posturing for the next election as democrats and republicans! The American People have had it with this unproductive BS!
Hey Carly, it's years later and still waiting for my new HP computer that you failed to honor the warranty on and charged me $30 an hour in tech support for.
Carly keeps repeating the Republican spin. Private sector is more efficient in running health care than Government run health care. Obamacare becomes law because for the failure of the free market private sector for the past decades. By the way, Obamacare does not mean Government run health care. It only means private insurance companies have rules to abide by to ensure better health insurance for all of american.
Ralph Nader is still alive? What happened, couldn't they get John McCain? Bozo? JayZ? Nancy Pelosi?
Carly Fiorina talked the whole time and didn't say anything. That seems to be the typical Republican strategy when it comes to health care. Do nothing.
OTOH, I haven't seen any more than this clip, but I highly doubt Ralph Nader supports Obamacare because it is corporate welfare and Nader sees how corporate influence is corrupting our system.
If Fiorina would just quit yapping, she might just learn something from Nader.
Democrats, please, please FOREVER castigate Ralph Nader.
If he had a brain, there is no way he would have run for President in 2000. Remember how close the election was [Florida, Florida, Florida, the Supreme Court, hanging chads, etc.] Gore lost a number of states that would have put him over the top by the amount of votes that Nader siphoned off. You can't convince me that without Nader arrogantly staying in the race that Gore wouldn't have beaten George Bush.
Imagine how history would be different. No evaporation of the Clinton budget surplus; the national debt would be paid off by now. No intelligence shortfalls / Bush arrogance that allowed the 9-11 attacks to succeed. No manufacture WMD-fueld war in Iraq, No Samuel Alito or John Roberts on the Supreme Court. Probably no financial meltdown that caused the Great Recession.
Ralph Nader has done a disproportionate amount of harm to "liberal" interests. There should at least be a lifetime of accountability levied on him.
Democrats aren't liberal, they are slightly less right than the Republicans. Ralph has every right to run, to blame him for anything is stupidity. You have no idea what democracy is, you want only a choice between dumb and dumber. The fact that Ralph ran and was not allowed to participate in any debate shows how far from a democracy the US has strayed. The fact that there was massive voter suppression, and fraud show that democracy is pretty well dead in North America. (Canada has the same crap going on).
It's America. Why shouldn't have Nader run for office? You think Gore wouldn't have destroyed this country like Bush did? Wake up, the two party system doesn't work. There's no difference between Democrats and Republicans. The lesser of two evils is still evil. Pick your poison, they'll both kill you.
Thats right, because things might have been better in hind-sight its important we limit ourselves to the two options that got us into this mess in the first place. The two party system is (has?) destroying our country, which is why I find it so frustrating to hear people blaming a true consumer advocate like Nader for "spoiling" an election that was "owed" to Al Gore. The more we convince ourselves that our only two options are the disgusting idiots on one side, or the disgusting idiots on the other side the more that will become the truth. People who want to convince other voters that using their voice to vote third party is dangerous or damaging are doing a disservice to actual representation through fear. You should be ashamed.
Gore could not even carry his home State of Tennessee after being VP for 8 years. If Democrats had listened to Nader more over the previous 8 years, Nader would not have been forced to run.
Some of us who are liberal hate the unDemocratic Party. Voting for Nader was better than staying home.
Nader didn't lose Gore Florida, factors like voter suppression and faulty ballots did. Well I shouldn't say that, they didn't. Gore won in Florida, Sometime after everything was settled down and they determined an accurate count. Gore had more votes than Bush in Florida. The Supreme Court ended the recount. But because Nader was marginally successful in Florida, he's the one to blame and his name be shamed forever.
Half of the people generally don't even bother to register and vote. This means candidates in close elections are only pulling in around 25% of potential voters each. If your candidate can't do any better than that despite the ghastly amounts of money wasted to fund these gigantic campaigns, I don't want to hear your whining about Nader taking 1%. Quit your crying and try running a better campaign if you can't defeat George "My Pet Goat" Bush.
My gosh. Carly never shuts up. If she would, she might learn something.
Amen, brother!
In Massachusetts with universal Romney care, this must not be an issue. In California the government took over our health care like she said, Bushy, and now I choose my plan (Blue Cross, Kiesar, Health Net), and I choose my doctor.
Yup. The GOP doesn't hate Obamacare. They're just afraid people will LIKE Obamacare!
Does Crossfire have a moderator-deficiency? Perhaps John McLaughlin could be brought it to show them how to keep a debate balanced. This debate should have been for the nation to hear and digest then debate on our own. Instead it was a boardroom speech from an ex-CEO with political aspirations with one of the nation's all-time leading consumer advocates in the room. With a more proficient moderator, this could have made for a solid debate.
If you don't like the Affordable Care Act, CHECK OUT WHAT YOUR NEW RATE FOR INSURANCE WILL BE!
If that isn't enough, someone is paying for your insurance and it isn't YOU!
She is crazy because almost all the health care companies are owned by a few umbrella corporations...that is the reason there is a lack of competition, because the lack is true, but she don't know it because she been busy trying to be a man and serving the beast...
What debate? That was Ms. Fiorina blabbing over him.
I agree. This wasn't a debate. This was akin to a football tactic. If you can't beat the QB, keep him off the field by running the clock.
Fiorina and Nader debated the ACA while SE Kupp sat there looking like an idiot. Giggling like a little school girl. Sorry SE, you are wrong, you where wrong when you worked for MSNBC. You are just another mouthpiece for the right wing. Is CNN just a step to Fox?
Is she ever gonna let Nader talk I don't like Obamacare but damn shut up for a minute
This wasn't any sort of debate. This lady wouldn't shut up, she had all the answers she needed & was not open to sensible debate, or discussion on topic at all whatsoever. What a farce these 'know it all" people perpetrate. It seems as though Ralph was trying to support whatever arguement he may have had with facts & figures... it's just a shame he wasn't allowed to speak.
Agree wholeheartedly. As usual the corporate media shuts out any real debates. It takes time to express ideas and educate the masses. Soundbites just confuse the issue and dumb down the populace. Ralph is always very informed and knowledgeable. It's a shame that he wasn't given the proper time to explain things to the populace. For shame, CNN!
it would have been cool if she had let Ralph talk for a minute uninterrupted like he did for her
Well, this wasn't so much a debate as it was this lady talking over Ralph Nader.
I saw the "debate" and thought that Ralph Nader had the better end of it.
No wonder you folks are so messed up (simply by listening to the way she talks)….there is absolutely no listening provided and the tactic is simply overpowering the person she is supposed to listen to. Poor Ralph…..