MSNBC Host Calls Britain's National Health Service 'A Wonderful Idea'

April 27th, 2011 10:40 AM

Martin Bashir has dared go where even most congressional Dems won't: praising Britain's National Health Service and by implication the socialization of medicine it represents.

On today's Morning Joe, Bashir said the National Health Service is "a wonderful idea."   For good measure, the British-born Bashir, who hosts a regular afternoon slot in the MSNBC line-up, also vastly overstated the percentage of the British workforce employed by the government.  He claimed that "over 40%" in the UK are "in the public workforce."  In fact, as per this official-seeming website, the actual percentage as of last month was about half that, in the range of 20-22% [6 million public-sector workers out of a total workforce of 29 million].

View video after the jump.



MARTIN BASHIR: I think what you're seeing now as well is that unemployment, and Katty [Kay of the BBC] was referring to this, is going to increase now, because the state sector is going to start laying off people.  From the first of April there were a number of cuts to be implemented. So, we've got a property market that's suppressed, we've got new construction which is down, and we've got the prospect of vast numbers of public sector workers being laid off. Remember, this country employs over 40% of its workforce in the public sector.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Wow. That is stunning

BASHIR: How many people do you think are employed by the National Health Service, which is a wonderful idea?  Over a million people.

So Bashir's abashed that Britain will be laying off government workers.  Solution to the unemployment problem: have the government hire everyone!  Oh, wait, they tried that . . .  in the late Soviet Union.

Note: not everyone, of course, shares Bashir's adulation of the NHS.  Horror stories abound.  Have a look, for example, at this agglomeration, both in the main body and in the links at the bottom of the site.