This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, September 27th, 2007.

I'm Caleb Brown.

For Hillary Clinton, freedom may be just another word for nothing left to lose.

Cato Executive Vice President David Bose argues that the junior senator from New York has a consistent record of dismissing the value of liberty, especially when some among

us go without material wealth.

Well, what Hillary Clinton said in her big health care speech, all the headlines are about health care.

But she had a line in there in which she said, we can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity,

about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can't take a sick child to the doctor?

And I just thought that was a striking, shocking thing to say. A lot of politicians violate life liberty in the

pursuit of happiness every day, but I can't think of any besides Hillary and

maybe Rick Santorum who explicitly dismiss the idea of life liberty and the pursuit of

happiness. It's really a striking thing that somebody who wants to be President of the United

States, a country that is founded on the promise of life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would just so cavalierly dismiss it.

Isn't she actually asking for a trade-off between life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness

and these sort of very basic needs that some people have?

Well, that would be a bad enough interpretation

because we know, as Ben Franklin said,

when you trade essential liberty for a little temporary

security you'll end up with neither. But I don't think she is offering a trade-off. I don't think

she said we might have to take a little of your freedom in order to have health care for everyone.

I think I get the sense of her waving her hand and dismissing the concepts of freedom and opportunity

...