On Monday night, 2020 candidate Joe Biden wouldn’t say whether he’d veto Medicare for All, which aims to provide free health care to every American, if he were elected president.
It’s a bullshit question since it would never get passed anyway.
He’s absolutely right - Medicare for All is also not that popular outside of the Online Left Activists, he’s smart to avoid getting sucked into the trap that Harris etc got sucked into.
Joe’s not my favorite, but it’s 110% a gotcha question. Stupid to ask, really stupid to answer.
I see he makes that point, and then moves on to 1) is it doable 2) how is it paid for, and 3) what are the consequences to people who already have insurance. Seems like a grounded and pragmatic response. More of a qualified “yes” rather than a dodge or a no.
That’s the key point right there. We’re already spending all the money needed to fund single-payer. It’s just being done in a way that makes it more expensive, leaves out tens of millions of people altogether, and is disproportionately burdensome to working class and middle class citizens.
What a fucking stupid issue/question. Might as well ask if he would sign a bill to pay for transsexual surgeries for 11 year olds.
There is zero, ok, less than zero chance that a mandatory government take over of health care with a ban on private insurance passes. And pushing this unicorn shit is just a way of helping to reelect Trump.
And this line takes the cake:
“He asserted that the estimated $32 trillion price tag (which he erroneously stated as being $35 trillion) on Medicare for All over ten years would be a problem.”
$32T vs $35T, to not get the made up figure touted by some 3rd party exactly correctly, is that really an issue? Why exactly is this the issue you push Joe on?
He has to answer and he did all right, considering. He can’t really say, look that will never get passed…
Or could he?
Exactly, Biden gave the exact right answer, he would need to read the bill before making a decision.
“Look, my opposition isn’t to the principle that you should have Medicare. Everybody…health care should be a right in America,” Biden told O’Donnell. “My opposition relates to whether or not A, it’s doable, two, what the cost is and the consequences for the rest of the budget are.”
Outrageous! How dare he question whether somebody’s bill is “doable”?
Why can’t he just just mindlessly assent to a complete hypothetical, instead of speaking honestly to the American people about the challenges and difficulties of actually implementing the most complex and expensive idea facing our future?!
Welp, people…you surprised me.
I thought the thread would be 100% Bernie people saying that this interview “Is The Turning Point” for Sanders.
They’re coming, though…
The hypothetical question is fine. And Joe answered it hypothetically. One may disagree with the answer, but this is the beginning of a genuine policy question that Democrats are trying to work out (and the GOP has no ideas, period!)
And need I point out, Joe is quite cogent.
Well, he did say it would have to be a “miracle” for it to come across his desk to be signed. Then again, we do live in miraculous times, what with our God-Emperor who can cure Covid-19 with the flu vaccine.
Takes them a min to get their talking points.
Perhaps he should? Highlight the need to flip the Senate. Galvanize the M4A group by having them vote to flip the Senate blue. It might be the incentive to turnout the vote for millions.
Exactly. The answer is: “If such a bill ever passes it will after a great national discussion, and of course I will sign it”.
He also said that he thinks health care is a right, btw, in that portion of the interview.
His answer is fine, but all questions about the future are essentially hypotheticals.
So they should just stop asking questions about the future.
That might actually be a good thing.
“I’ll look at the merits of the law that gets passed” is not a dodge, you fucking asswipes.
What you really mean is “Biden refused to let us put him in a box so we could create a narrative off it, so now we’re going to throw turds at him for his failure to help our ratings…”
Ding ding ding ding ding.
It was already not popular, and I suspect it is particularly poisonous concept in this time of medical chaos and uncertainty. Let’s maybe worry about upending the whole system at some time when we’re not facing a national calamity.