There was a moment this week where the liberals were entirely sure they’d “owned the cons”: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, as close to a pure libertarian as you’ll get in the upper chamber of Congress, was heading to Canada for a medical procedure.

And you know what that means!

“Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the fiercest political critics of socialized medicine, will travel to Canada later this month to get hernia surgery,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Monday.

“Paul, an ophthalmologist, said the operation is related to an injury in 2017 when his neighbor, Rene Boucher, attacked him while Paul was mowing his lawn. The incident left Kentucky’s junior senator with six broken ribs and a bruised lung.

“He is scheduled to have the outpatient operation at the privately adminstered Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Thornhill, Ontario during the week of Jan. 21, according to documents from Paul’s civil lawsuit against Boucher filed in Warren Circuit Court.”

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Now, before liberals could notice several very important words in those paragraphs, they took to Twitter en masse.

“BREAKING: Rand Paul, who constantly attacks socialize (sic) medicine, has decided to travel to Canada to take advantage of socialized medicine during his Hernia operation,” liberal Trump conspiracy theorist and caps-lock aficionado Brian Krassenstein tweeted. “HYPOCRITE! We need Medicare for all, RIGHT NOW!”

Siri: show me ironic irony https://t.co/ErpEneVrqV — Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 14, 2019

Behold, the hypocrite senator who described socialized medicine as “slavery.” Tell Congress we need #MedicareForAll now: https://t.co/iQQ4yeeBjyhttps://t.co/vkoOnQwc4H #Irony — Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) January 14, 2019

“Americans don’t deserve good healthcare, but I do.” – Rand Paul https://t.co/EGHO9QkICL — Jason Pollock (@Jason_Pollock) January 14, 2019

I don’t know if everyone read the Courier-Journal article like I did, but there were a few words in there they didn’t: “privately administered.”

Do you think Rand Paul was right to seek treatment in Canada? Yes No Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use You're logged in to Facebook. Click here to log out. 87% (872 Votes) 13% (134 Votes)

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“While Shouldice Hernia Hospital is privately owned — like many Canadian hospitals — it receives a majority of its funding from the Ontario government and accepts the Ontario’s Hospital Insurance Plan,” the Courier-Journal reported.

“The hospital’s website outlines payments it accepts, including cash, check or credit card for those patients, like Paul, who are not covered by Ontario’s insurance plan or a provincial health insurance plan.” (Emphasis ours.)

In other words, this isn’t socialized medicine in the least. It isn’t hypocrisy. It’s Rand Paul, an outspoken conservative, picking the medical care he wants and paying for it.

“This is more fake news on a story that has been terribly reported from day one — this is a private, world-renowned hospital separate from any system and people come from around the world to pay cash for their services,” Paul spokesman Kelsey Cooper said in an email.

If you want to see what actual socialized medicine looks like in Canada, read charming stories like this one. That’s what happens in Canada when you don’t have the money to go to a private hospital.

Now you may get an idea of why Rand Paul doesn’t want socialized medicine — and why you shouldn’t either.

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