Jindal Campaign Press Release - Jindal: Donald Trump Doesn't Get it. Health Care is the GOP's Alamo

In December last year, The People's Republic of Vermont, the only state that sends a self-described socialist to the U.S. Senate, rejected a proposal from Democrats for a single payer health care system, because it was just too expensive.

They had ignored a basic economic principle: socialism doesn't work because, to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, Britain's "Iron Lady," you always run out of other people's money.

Sunday on "60 Minutes," he made it clear that he supports the government takeover of health care and wants to give free care to every American.

He announced he will "...take care of everybody..." promising that "...the government's gonna pay for it."

Putting aside the implications of "TrumpCare" for our taxes, economic growth and the national debt, the implications for conservatism are deadly.

The Republican presidential primary is being dominated by someone who agrees with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about the defining domestic policy issue of our time.

The problem is this: Donald Trump is not a conservative. If he has a political philosophy at all, it is plutocratic hypocrisy. He inherited a fortune, used American capitalism to turn that into mega-wealth and now lectures everyone else that we need the government to take care of us.

The danger is, if he persuades Americans that government controlled health care is acceptable, he will have opened the door for a nanny state and made the Republican Party irrelevant.

It would hand the Left a rationale for interference in every aspect of our lives. If government pays for your health care, they will claim it should have a say in your lifestyle: whether you smoke or drink, your salt and sugar intake, how you exercise and even whether you own a firearm. It would be former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's big gulp campaign — supersized.

Since our country's founding, the bulwark against socialism's empty promises and this kind of state control, has been the good sense of the American people and the steel spines of conservatives.

Yet almost eight years of the Obama presidency and the passage of ObamaCare has put that defense in jeopardy. Not because Democrats are suddenly winning the argument, but because Republicans have stopped fighting.

The Washington establishment is telling us that we must accept a 'post-ObamaCare reality,' that the government should ensure coverage for every American.

Now the establishment is enabling Donald Trump with their silence and making him think his position is acceptable.

Even conservative senators like Ted Cruz are complicit. He has distinguished himself by praising Trump's positions and clinging to his events, in the hope of picking up his votes when he eventually fades.

Read the full Op-Ed