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Trump To UK: NHS Has To Be On The Table In A Trade Deal
Hotair ^ | 06/05/2019 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 06/05/2019 11:55:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Does Donald Trump want Jeremy Corbyn as his next partner in the US-UK relationship? Because this is precisely how you get more Jeremy Corbyn. In touting the potential for a post-Brexit trade agreement with the Brits, Trump told reporters that their National Health Service would have to be “on the table,” comments immediately seized upon by Labour:

When asked if the NHS should be on the table for a post-Brexit trade deal, Donald Trump says "everything will be on table".

Get live updates here: https://t.co/BbLjWva8ok pic.twitter.com/BDoQzGjjXn

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 4, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump said Britain’s public health service should be on the table in talks about a trade deal between the two countries after Brexit, prompting Prime Minister Theresa May to say some areas of the economy might be off limits.

“I think everything with a trade deal is on the table,” Trump said when asked if U.S. companies should be able to access Britain’s National Health Service after a deal.

“So NHS or anything else, or a lot more than that. But everything will be on the table, absolutely.”

Labour has already claimed that the Tories want to privatize some or all of the popular NHS, a claim that Tories have denied. Those claims have focused on the pending US-UK trade talks, with rumors that American companies might end up running parts of what is now a single-payer system in the UK. Theresa May, understanding the danger Trump’s remarks created, tried to quickly shut down the NHS talk:

Donald Trump on a US/UK post-Brexit trade deal – “Everything will be on the table and that includes the NHS.”#TrumpUKVisit #Brexit #NHSpic.twitter.com/z64nMasplp

— James Melville (@JamesMelville) June 4, 2019

Mrs May was forced to interject, telling reporters: “But the point in making trade deals is of course that both sides negotiate and come to an agreement about what should or should not be in that trade deal for the future.”

Even before Trump’s remarks, Corbyn had fired up a protest rally by promising to protect the NHS from Americans and privatization:

U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Tuesday he would not stand for a post-Brexit trade deal that “offered up” the nation’s “precious” National Health Service to American companies.

In an impassioned speech to crowds gathered in Whitehall to protest against the state visit of U.S. President Donald Trump, the opposition leader delivered a series of broadsides against what he referred to as “visitors from the U.S.,” adding “it’s about the kind of world we want to live in.”

On Brexit, Corbyn said the basis for debate should not be “how we go forward with no deal at the same time as offering up, offering up our precious, wonderful National Health Service to private American companies to come in and take it over.”

“We will not stand for that,” he said to cheers from the protesters. “We will fight with every last breath of our body to defend the principle, for the principle of a health service free at the point of need to everybody as a human right.”

Now that Trump’s flat-out put NHS on the table, don’t expect Corbyn to let the issue go. He’s been caught up in an anti-Semitism scandal of his own making, and he’s bungled the Brexit question so far badly enough that voters bypassed Labour to embrace the Liberal Democrats and Greens in the EU elections. Corbyn desperately needs to distract from his failures and his character flaws, and Trump handed him a huge gift to accomplish just that. The Tories will not be thanking Trump in their next national election.

Trump might have complicated the end game for Brexit as well, but in that case the potential for damage is limited anyway. The UK is heading for a crash-out, with the EU demanding that the UK accept May’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill and refusing further negotiations. The race for new Tory leadership has hinged so far on just how forcefully each candidate has rejected the WAB, so don’t expect a negotiated exit by the Halloween deadline.

Here’s Trump adding his two cents on Brexit, declaring that “it would be very good for the country.”

"I would think that it will happen and it probably should happen."

Pres. Trump says he thinks that Brexit "would be very good for the country" and praises UK PM Theresa May's efforts, saying she has "done a very good job." https://t.co/u2gcqHnZzp pic.twitter.com/azXLiEbKzn

— ABC News (@ABC) June 4, 2019



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: brexit; brexitparty; europeanunion; jeremycorbyn; labourparty; nhs; theresamay; tradedeal; trumpuk; uk; unitedkingdom
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To: RedStateRocker

Just staking out a negotiating position he can give up later for them to fee they got something important.


21 posted on 06/05/2019 1:21:11 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

I just mean I’d be pretty pissed if a British PM opined about and tried to intervene in our healthcare system. Tory or Labor I’d tell the piss the eff off.


22 posted on 06/05/2019 1:28:14 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca. Deport all illegals. Abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF,.)
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To: RedStateRocker

I speculate that access to the NHS is what he meant. *

Meaning that a trade deal encompasses US companies having the ability to sell services and products into the NHS - that that is on the table in a negotiation.

........................

*I may be wrong. It happened once in the 70s. I still shudder when I remember that moment.


23 posted on 06/05/2019 1:33:59 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: SeekAndFind
“I think everything with a trade deal is on the table,” Trump said when asked if U.S. companies should be able to access Britain’s National Health Service after a deal.

Access by U.S. companies can't make NHS any worse than it is now. Especially if it includes dental services...


24 posted on 06/05/2019 1:35:31 PM PDT by rfp1234 (NBC: Putting the TURD in Saturday.)
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To: SeekAndFind

All this time and these ‘journalists’ don’t understand how President Trump works.


25 posted on 06/05/2019 1:40:04 PM PDT by Chaguito
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

Yes, same in Canada.

The DISTINCTION is between ‘health coverage’ and ‘health-care’.

A few years back, a Canadian was interviewed anonymously as he had come to Seattle for medical treatment. He was asked why he didn’t simply get the treatment he needed in Canada. He said he couldn’t wait and he had the means to get it done with a short trip across the border.

He was asked then about his view of the Canadian universal healthcare single-payer system. He said, “It’s great!” He was asked again why he was in the USA, didn’t he have coverage for his condition in Canada? He said, “Oh yeah! I’m covered for everything in Canada! Every Canadian has complete health coverage.”

Care vs. Coverage.

He was then confronted with his illogic. He finally admitted after he was ensured his identity would be kept a secret that no one dares say anything against the socialist healthcare system in Canada else the power of the state will come down hard you.

Socialist healthcare is a pillar for controlling the population. It’s not about health, it’s about control, about ‘compliance’, ‘obedience’, subordination.


26 posted on 06/05/2019 1:47:41 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

Funny.


27 posted on 06/05/2019 2:06:56 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: Hostage
...no one dares say anything against the socialist healthcare system in Canada else the power of the state will come down hard you.

Oh, please.

I guess Dudley Do-Right is going to show up in jack boots and drag him to the gulag.

28 posted on 06/05/2019 2:08:03 PM PDT by semimojo
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To: ConservativeDude

Correct...horrible as it is they love it.


29 posted on 06/05/2019 2:46:40 PM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket)
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To: semimojo

You can mock all you want but it just goes to show you have no experience.

The state actions are not instantaneous or even quick. They are insidious and incremental over time.

Canadian doctors or US public clinic doctors are not beholden to the patient, they are state doctors tasked to gather information for the state. They are required to ask questions like the following as a matter of ‘Public Health’.

Sex
“How many sexual partners do you have?”
“Do you engage in same-sex activities”
“Are you polyamorous?”
“Do you masturbate?”
“How often do you have sex or masturbate?”
etc.

Child Caregiving
“Do you spank or use any form of corporal punishment in disciplining children in your care?”
“Do you ever send children in your care to bed without dinner?”
“Do you allow children in your care to drink sugary sodas?”
etc.

Socialization
“Do you have any animus or negative thoughts towards persons of specific ethnicity or religion?”
“Are you sometimes angered by outside events to the point of raising your voice or acting aggressively?”
“Have you ever threatened anyone with a weapon?”
etc.

Such questions are rotated per a sampling plan for the purpose of gathering information for government databases. Any refusal to answer such questions results in tagging the ‘patient’ as ‘noncompliant’, etc. Once a negative profile is created, it is never erased. And yes, if a patient has negative things to say about the socialized healthcare system, it is noted in the record and police may be alerted to keep an eye out for such antisocial persons who are suspected sociopaths.

And this socialized healthcare system has affected the Washington State Healthcare Authority. Parents visiting state-funded clinics such as university pediatric clinics have reported being routinely asked if there are any guns in the home. Parents have been ordered out of the examining room while their child as young as 12 years old is asked if they are having sex.

The difference between public and private healthcare is enormous. Public clinics are paid whether a patient has insurance or not. Medical staff at public clinics have no bond to patients whereas in private clinics, the patient pays for services either direct or through insurance and this creates a relationship that is respected between doctor and patient.


30 posted on 06/05/2019 3:02:06 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: SeekAndFind

A trade for Illinois or New York would be fine, but not California as I live in California.


31 posted on 06/05/2019 3:10:56 PM PDT by Thud
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To: Hostage
Care vs. Coverage.

As Milton Friedman once observed, "If there ain't any, nobody gets any."

32 posted on 06/05/2019 5:48:09 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

But there’s ‘COVERAGE’!

Just not with ‘care’.

“Hey! I got complete coverage!”

Yeah? Must feel good to get free healthcare.

“Care? I’m talking c-o-v-e-r-a-g-e!”


33 posted on 06/05/2019 7:19:53 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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