Cavuto guest Hoenig: "[W]hy should I be responsible for paying for Joe Biden's brain aneurysms?"

Summary: On Cavuto on Business, Jonathan Hoenig, a regular panelist on Fox News' Cashin' In, falsely asserted that both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden "have made it very clear that they support socialized health care." Hoenig went on to say: "I know it sounds kind of curt in this age of political correctness and altruism, but why should I be responsible for paying for Joe Biden's brain aneurysms?" Biden suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988.

During the August 23 edition of Fox News' Cavuto on Business, guest Jonathan Hoenig, a regular panelist on Fox News' Cashin' In and managing member of Capitalistpig Asset Management LLC, falsely asserted that Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden "have made it very clear that they support socialized health care." Hoenig went on to say: "I know it sounds kind of curt in this age of political correctness and altruism, but why should I be responsible for paying for Joe Biden's brain aneurysms?" Host Neil Cavuto responded, "All righty. I'll leave that alone." Biden suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988.

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, Obama has not proposed a health-care system that is "socialized" or government-run; Obama has called for individuals to choose their own insurance.

Hoenig's assertion that Biden "support[s] socialized healthcare" is also false. During the Democratic primary, Biden proposed a health-care plan that allowed individuals a choice in the type of coverage they purchased. According to his Senate website, Biden supports "[a]llowing uninsured Americans the opportunity to purchase an insurance plan that mirrors the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP)," as well as "[e]xpanding the SCHIP [State Children's Health Insurance Program] program to allow more children to participate, and increasing outreach efforts to enroll every child eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid."

From the August 23 edition of Fox News' Cavuto on Business:

CAVUTO: Now, Jonathan, you're not calming down, right?

HOENIG: Neil, I'm not. In fact, both Joe Biden and Barack Obama have made it very clear that they support socialized health care. In fact, they think that health care is a right. And I think it shows a real ignorance as to what a right actually is. I mean, a right is right to action; it's not to a freebie from someone else. And I know it sounds kind of curt in this age of political correctness and altruism, but why should I be responsible for paying for Joe Biden's brain aneurysms?

MARC LAMONT HILL (Fox News contributor): Ouch.

CAVUTO: All righty. I'll leave that alone.

—T.A.