James Talarico Tries to Argue the Bible Calls for a Government-Run Healthcare System
“telling a Texas church crowd that the New Testament makes a public health insurance option a Christian obligation”
James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, tried to make a case for a government-run healthcare system during a recent campaign event and used the Bible as evidence of this.
We recently highlighted a poll suggesting he is competitive in this race, which is stunning given stories like this one.
This is Talarico’s routine, and he does it all the time. He uses his Christian faith to argue for progressive political policy. It’s the only time he ever even mentions his religious beliefs. How do people not just laugh him off the stage?
The other remarkable aspect of Talarico’s comments here is that he says we have to ‘finish’ Obama’s work, which sounds like an admission that Obamacare was meant to lead to government-run healthcare.
Breitbart News reports:
Talarico Says the Bible Demands Government-Run Health Insurance
Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico said Scripture requires the government to guarantee health coverage, telling a Texas church crowd that the New Testament makes a public health insurance option a Christian obligation.
Talarico made the argument at a town hall he held at a DeSoto church on July 20, footage of which his campaign posted Saturday under the title “James Talarico Unveils Plan For Black Voters.” The Austin Democrat argued the country should “finish the work of President Obama” and pass a public option, then grounded the pitch in the Gospels.
“Because health care is a human right. It is not a privilege,” Talarico said.
Talarico told the crowd he wanted to speak scripturally, given the setting, and pointed to how Jesus spent his ministry.
“If you read our scriptures, if you read the New Testament, what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it is healing. Healing the sick,” Talarico said. “And in Matthew 25, scripture says that’s how we will be judged and how we will be saved. By healing the sick, by feeding the hungry, by welcoming the stranger, by visiting the prisoner.”
Watch this:
James Talarico says the Bible demands government-run health insurance:
If you read the New Testament, what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? It's not preaching. It's not teaching. It is healing. Healing the sick.
And in Matthew 25, scripture says that's how we will be… pic.twitter.com/7KLCWAjI0U
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 1, 2026
Can’t people see through this song and dance?
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
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Comments
God should strike down this evil satanic clown
As Bernard Baruch observed, any fool in error can find a passage in the Bible to back him up.
I think it is in Revelation….It’s ca;;ed The Tribulation.
Never trust a Democrat doing theology. But Talarico believes in how many genders even though the Bible clearly states there are only 2.
“Never trust a Democrat doing theology.”
A Christian cannot stand before God and say, “I didn’t visit the sick because I paid my taxes and outsourced that to the government.”
Cool story bro. Even granting this ‘theological interpretation’ it applies to individuals not govt nor society at large. Salvation is voluntary not compelled. Pretty sure there’s all sorts of things within the Bible that would Mr Talarico would find horrific if we simply used his same logic and demanded society/govt must enforce them.
I bet he is terrified of “Christian Nationalism”.
Like stoning people for certain acts….
As Bernard Baruch observed, any fool in error can find a passage in the Bible to back him up.
Must be the new Progressive Christianity. “It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it is healing. Healing the sick,” So government will be Jesus like?
For someone going to Seminary, he really doesn’t know the Bible. Jesus main focus was teaching – John 14;6 – Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Light and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (Which also shoots down Talarico’s statement that Christianity = Islam). The people that Jesus healed believed that he was the Son of God. Something interesting is that Jesus could not do miracles in Bethlehem as it was his hometown and the people there did not believe.
In his latest TV ad, it shows him driving a rented Ram pickup, (I guess showing that he’s macho), and one clip clearly shows youths riding in its bed, which is illegal in Texas.
We’re rifles on the rack?
Nazareth, not Bethlehem.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesus lived in Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, and Capernaum. Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt when he was an infant to escape King Herod. Years later, he returned to live in Nazareth until his ministry began.
During the years of his ministry, he made Capernaum his base.
He mostly grew up in Nazareth, it seems. Capernaum was only a “base” during the three years of His ministry.
1. He did not live in Bethlehem.
2. The place where he performed few (not no) miracles because they didn’t believe in him was Nazareth, not Bethlehem.
(This is all, of course, assuming the text is true. I don’t believe it is, but for the purpose of this question we have to assume it, since without that assumption the entire topic makes no sense.)
He did live in Bethlehem for a couple of years. The Magi did not show up on Christmas morning, but some time later. It’s why Herod went to kill all the boys under 2yo. Jesus was somewhere between infant and 2yo based on the appearance of the star.
The whole premise of his being born in Bethlehem (which is almost certainly not true) is that there was some sort of census, and for some bizarre reason they had to leave their home in Nazareth and be there when the census was taken. And that the town was so crowded they had to stay in makeshift accommodations. If that were all true, once they’d been counted why on earth would they stay? They would naturally leave the next day to go back home. Therefore (again assuming the story to be true) the Magi’s visit and the warning to flee to Egypt must have come shortly after the birth, while they were still waiting for Mary to recover or for the census to be taken.
Milhouse, your knowledge of Scripture and history is on par with Talarico. Unless of course this is brilliant parody and you’re just feigning ignorance. If that’s the case, well done, very amusing
Concise, it is not parody. And it appears that I know your scriptures better than you do.
We are discussing Ruby Red’s assertion that “Jesus could not do miracles in Bethlehem as it was his hometown and the people there did not believe”. That assertion is simply false. Jesus’s hometown, where your scripture says he did few miracles (not none) because they didn’t believe, was Nazareth.
Nowhere in your scripture can you find any statement about how many miracles he performed in Bethlehem, or about whether the people there believed in him — or that it was his hometown. There is an obviously contrived story about how a couple from Nazareth came to have a baby in Bethlehem, but given the premise of the story they must have left shortly after the birth and never returned. It makes no sense to claim they remained two years in an overcrowded town that was not their home, long after they had any legal obligation to remain there!
Because Jesus loved him some more government, can I get an amen, brothers and sisters?
Come to think of it, the way the government treated Jesus is a lot like what’s going on in Canada right now. Say something the government doesn’t like? They’ll punish you. And if you say something doubleplus ungood, they’ll nail you to the cross.
Crucification, the ultimate government health care.
Oh, come now. Canada wouldn’t be so gauche as to crucify you. They have a much more elegant, quiet, and peaceful syringe or two over here….
“If you read our scriptures, if you read the New Testament, what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it is healing. Healing the sick,”
State-run healthcare is funded through mandatory taxation (Caesar’s power of the sword). Christian charity, by definition, must be given freely out of love, not compulsion.
Talarico, communist dorkus supreme.
The more this clown talks the more I think he should be incarcerated in a mental asylum. The Republicans should be able to run a glass of water with a R inscribed postit note affixed and win, That they are struggling is an indication of how stupid the American public has generally become. Of course never underestimate the ability of the republican party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
“Healthcare is a right.”
WRONG. Just because someone is a skilled doctor, it doesn’t give you a ‘right’ to their time. Just because a company has developed a useful but expensive drug, it doesn’t give you a ‘right’ to have it. Just because a hospital has converted some real estate to a useful operating suite or patient room, it doesn’t give you a ‘right’ to occupy it. Etc.
Healthcare is not a right. Period. This is an unrealistic and dangerous expectation to instill in people, to convince people to demand.
Of course it’s a right. It’s right there in the constitution after… errrr the right to abortion… the rights to a free education and free daycare… the right to change your sex whenever you want and to whatever you want… and the right for democrats to lie and cheat in elections. Check the fine print! The really small stuff!
You have a right to seek healthcare, and (maybe) to not be turned away because of discrimination. And, other people have a right to help you pay for it, or to provide it freely to you – if that is what they want to do.
Religion used to do health care long ago – doctors overcharged those who would pay in order to treat those who couldn’t. The government ended that.
The old practice was soul-saving, the new practice is not.
IMO Talfreako is what the Bible warns us against!
Actually, Mathew 25 says very little about caring for the sick. Just two lines:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
I do NOT see these two lines as supporting government health care. Try again, Talarico!
Matthew 25 refers to the way the Jews will be treated during the Tribulation.
Actually, it occurs 4 times. It also occurs in verses 36 and 39.
Also notice they reference ministering, not healing. The overall connotation of the “sick” bits is providing help (visiting, feeding, caring for fever, etc.), not medical care.
I think he should do some more reading, but then again reading is only valuable when comprehension follows.
Show me one verse, even out of context, that say get Caesar to pay for your doctor.
Did not know there was Obamacare back in the day.
Well, it was Octaviacare, but…
“…. footage of which his campaign posted Saturday under the title “James Talarico Unveils Plan For Black Voters.”
Hunh.
No other color plans, just black.
Seems a bit….racist.
I’m pretty sure that the Ten Commandments include one that says Thou shalt not steal. That would cover anything socialist.
Yes and no.
It would cover anything where people are forced to live in a community where their wealth is redistributed regardless of their desires. (In the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, Peter says, “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?”)
It would not cover a Christian “socialism”, where everyone gives voluntarily of their own abundance to take care of others. (Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.)
Waitaminnit — because it’s in the Bible?
All of a sudden, Democrats are getting behind a theocracy??
What day is it now?
Satan also loved to take scripture out of context or misquote it. Dorkus Supreme is just following his master’s example.
Talarico is a mess. He is a lying hypocrite. I live in Texas and have seen two of his advertisements on TV. He tries to present himself as a normal, everyday person which he sure as hell isn’t.
He apparently belongs to the Presbyterian Church USA which has gone FAR left. The PCUSA twists and turns the Bible to justify any and all perversions.
Talarico is almost correct. The Bible calls for followers of Jesus to care for each other. Medi-Share is an example of this. https://www.medishare.com/
The Bible says nothing about any obligation for secular government providing health care.
Christian organizations used to be more involved in providing healthcare. There are still Christianity-based hospitals, but the Democrats are trying to destroy them by requiring them to provide abortions and trans medication and surgery.
The destruction of family-based community by the scattering effect of our technological culture has made it difficult for individual churches to provide for their members. Churches have largely ceded their responsibilities to the government.
Talarico is a fool.
We are in the End Times.
Specifically, the parable he is referencing in the quote is the opposite of demanding government-run healthcare. It’s actually saying that the act of charity means nothing if your heart isn’t in it because of love.
The sheep are saved because they loved without thinking about who it was they were helping. They did it because Christ said to do those things as extensions of His love. The goats were condemned because they would happily have done those things if Christ had been suffering in those ways. Meaning they weren’t loving at all, but were trying to get ahead in the afterlife. The exact opposite of “saved by works.”
No, Talarico is a very slick operator who wants to win. Any R-leaning person who votes for him is the fool.
When it suits them, separation of church and state is no longer an issue.
Yep, the cafeteria style phony Christians are the worst. It ain’t a buffet, it is all or none and there’s all sorts of things Talarico and his ilk would by horrified to see made into public policy.
Tallerico also thinks that the Bible calls for buggery, so consider the source.
Ultimately I believe Democrats will lose because they’re so comically phony. They pretend to be hunters, cowboys, even exploit faith like this scunge. But they have no real understanding of any of these things, they just pretend, badly. Some here may dislike President Trump but he is authentic. He doesn’t; change into a flannel shirt or cowboy hat to give a speech with a fake accent.
what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it is healing.
Wrong. He teaches us about the Kingdom of God more than anything else. And he’s almost always teaching when healing happens (and a lot of the time when it’s not).
And in Matthew 25, scripture says that’s how we will be judged and how we will be saved. By healing the sick, by feeding the hungry, by welcoming the stranger, by visiting the prisoner.
Sorry, Talarico, but you’re not only WRONG, you’re BLASPHEMOUS here. We are NOT saved by charitable works. (BTW, it’s a horrible misreading of Matthew 25*; the parable of the sheep and goats is about why you are doing those charitable works – is your heart in it because of love or because you’re checking off boxes.)
And, you actually violate the point of that very parable in using it to argue for government-run charity. By taking the charity out of the hands of individuals you 1) make it a work of law, and 2) you remove the ability of the individuals to practice charity.
(* And the other two big parables in Matthew 25 are the parable of the talents and the parable of the ten virgins. Neither of which have anything to do with government-run charity or “human rights.”)
And, of course:
Because health care is a human right.
No, it isn’t. Something you expect someone else to provide is never a “human right.” (Strictly speaking, what we rightly call “human rights” are derived from Scriptural principles and don’t exist in Scripture.)
“Healthcare is a human right.” I certainly agree healthcare is a human right. Government shouldn’t anyone’s way of exercising any of their human rights; everyone should be free to pay for the best healthcare they can afford. But government is not the source of any human right; human rights emanate from our status as “humans”, not from the governments we construct.
However, if Talarico proposes that a right to arms means the government will supply me with a 12 guage shotgun and a .44 magnum lever-action rifle, I would consider voting for him.
“Government shouldn’t stand in anyone’s way…”
A few things –
1-What he says and attributes to gospels was largely said earlier by isaiah.
2- if something is a right it means somwone else is compelled to give it to you.
3- most importantly we already have “free” healthcare for the poor. It’s called medicaid. The poorest peiple here have healthcare as good as the best healthcare in canada. Care is delayed more in canada than it is for medicaid. If you have a job you have insurance much better than socialized medicine in Canada or england.
Talerico is such a sod. Only bigger sods will vote for him. Pray that he doesn’t win. Surely the Bible advises that.
Praying won’t stop Talarico from winning. Organizing and getting out the vote just might.
Or you could be like Catholics, who started hospitals, healthcare systems, schools, colleges, orphanages, food banks, and other charities on their own. Government has been hostile to them and trying to shut them down for years.
Talarico is a very slick candidate who is good at using scripture to justify Leftist policies. He also has more than 10x the funds that Paxton has, so he can get his message out. He could win the election. Republicans need to take this guy seriously.
Talarico’s position makes zero sense. He argues healthcare is a human right because Jesus heals in the Bible, but Jesus didn’t teach government policy, and contrary to Talarico’s claim He didn’t spend most of His time healing. Healing was actually simply proof of His divinity, that when He said ‘go and sin no more’ or ‘I forgive your sins,’ He was speaking with authority.
Worse, Jesus grounded His teaching in Scripture i.e. what is now the OT, which says things like homosexuality is an abomination meriting death. Jesus also explicitly stated give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God that which is God. There’s a bifurcation there.
So Talarico rejects the morality Jesus unequivocally upheld, whilst pretending the actions and nature of Jesus mandate government policy that Jesus never espoused.
Funny how Democrats support Woke theocracy, and try to ground it in the Bible, but those who espouse Biblical ethics are accused of being theocrats and their existence impermissible in Democrat America.
The federal government runs NOTHING efficiently. It is absolutely rife with incompetence and corruption, and has been for many decades. Social security….medicare….medicaid….billions stolen every year. To allow them to control health care does nothing but give them more power, and more money to steal or mishandle, and more chaos. And that is exactly what democrats want…a govt that controls every aspect of your life, with them in charge of course.
Talarico needs to get his money back from the seminary he attended.