Progressive Cenk Uygur, a host of The Young Turks, went head to head with conservative Ben Shapiro, the Editor-in-Chief at the Daily Wire at Politicon Sunday. Nearly 3,000 people came to watch the two debate healthcare, the economy, tax reform, the media, campaign spending, and identity politics for more than an hour.
Uygur argued in support for Medicare for all, saying, “I view it as not something that capitalism should deal with, I believe in capitalism and think they make great sneakers. But it is something that is equality of opportunity and you can’t have equality of opportunity if you are dead. So Medicare for all.”
Shapiro shot back to what he called the ‘Bernie Sanders Shtick.’
“The problem with Medicare for all is that when people say that it is affordable it is only affordable to people who have Medicare, it is not affordable to the country,” Shapiro said.
Uygur then said that conservatives seem to misunderstand health insurance altogether. Uygur argued that the healthy should subsidize those who are sick in America comparing health insurance coverage to car insurance.
“The people who are not getting into accidents are subsidizing the accidents. Yes! That’s car insurance that’s how insurance works,” Uygur said.
Shapiro sharply criticized the idea of universal healthcare and single payer healthcare arguing its economic shortfalls the lack of choice and genuine care that people would receive under a universal system.
“If people felt like they were going to get the same access to care in single payer health care than a system where they could pay their own way then we would have no controversy here. But the fact is rationing is mandated when you have the government start deciding the care. But I don’t want anyone deciding the level of care I can get,” Shapiro argued.
Uygur received multiple boos from the crowd throughout the debate, receiving a unanimous boo from the audience when discussing taxes after he said claimed that it is better to have higher taxes in order to stimulate the economy.
“Guys, try to follow along it’s called logic,” Uygur said.
When the audience continued to boo him he then suggested that the audience was uneducated on how the economy worked.
Uygur was also widely booed again in his final remarks when discussing identity politics accusing Republicans of using racist campaign strategies in the south.
