This only pushes Democrats left if we go there.
My own preference is for a Medicare buy-in that letās people keep private insurance. If private insurance can compete on a level playing field with Medicare, so much the better. (I very much doubt that it can, but maybe Iām wrong.) Private insurance could be a check on public programs which, let us admit it, are not always all that they could or should be.
I expected this.
Sanders has to somehow deflect attention from the realization that he, in fact, will NOT be releasing his tax returns any time soon.
Sanders???
Meh. Heās now millionaire from books sales. Just running to write his next book and make a few more millions while he can.
But now for some BREAKING not NEWS!!!
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)āThe shakeup in the Trump Administration continued on Wednesday as Donald Trump named a fellow television personality, Lori Loughlin, to be the new Secretary of Education.
In making the announcement, Trump praised Loughlin for her ādisruptive approachā to college admissions and expressed hope that she could bring the same brand of innovative thinking to the Department of Education.
Four of Sandersā 2020 primary rivals are cosponsors of this bill, as they were on his last one: Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Gillibrand appeared with Sanders at the event.
IMO, this is a bad move. These candidates are signing onto something they canāt defend properly. I understand that Booker is going on the stump and framing it as an āidealā which is what he should do. But signing onto this thing will force them to defend it under media scrutiny. The media is going to move in the direction of āDems want socialism.ā We know that thatās absurd but I donāt know if the Dem frontrunners can fight their way successfully out of that bag. And Iām convinced that many more Americans will take the side of the media regarding āsocialism.ā
Is there a link somewhere with details of what heās actually proposing? And more importantly, how heās planning to pay for it?
Itās disappointing to me that Harris is on board with this. As the TPM article states, M4A polls āunderwaterā when people learn what it actually would require. Bernie will hand-wave the enormous costs and taxation requirements, Iām sure. Doctors and hospitals will fight this tooth and nail because it will very likely reduce their income. We just donāt need this kind of headwind in a must-win election cycle.
While we wait for details, the NYT today has a good rundown on what something like this might actually cost (or save):
Eat up Berniebotsā¦
If this helps reset the Overton Window to the actual Center, Iād call that a win.
Agreed. But if we start there as a proposal, it will be watered down (see ACA). Its my opinion Obama and dems should have pushed for Single Payer and settled for the ACA w/ bipartisan votes.
I doubt it too. But agree we should ālet the market decideā by giving the option for Buy-in. This is the next step we must take before we get to M4A.
Yes, but the intent is really the opposite the public program as a check on private.
They basically all are, with the exception of Sanders. The Warren quote in the article makes that clear its her strategy at least.
The media is going to go that route regardless. The right wing noise machine is making too big a deal about it for the bothsiderim of the MSM to ignore it.
Indeed, I have a similar discussion with some Democrats, and I keep pointing out, that trying to defend āsocialismā as a concept is a foolās errand and exactly what the right wing wants to happen. Defend the policy, shrug off the calls of āSocialism!ā is the correct approach. If they only thing the right can argue is āPolicy X is socialismā and we stay on point that āPolicy X improves voters life in this way, that way and this other wayā, we will win the argument at the end of the day.
Never would have happened if we pushed for single payer. That would have been all the excuse the GOP and Dems in tough states, like Nelson, needed to just walk the fuck away and would have made the demagoguery of it all far more damaging and effective. Non-starter. People need to get this idea out of their head that itās always a great negotiating tactic to over-demand as a way of trying to make the compromise closer to what you want. GOPers wouldnāt have been threatened in the least by demands for single payer and it would never have made them come around to the ACAās style of market solution to āthreatenā them with a pie-in-the-sky never-going-to-happen overreach.
Release your tax returns, or go away, Bernie. Weāve been there and done that with Trump, and we are beyond feckless if we let ourselves be fooled again.
Also, will someone explain to me why Bernie calls his plan āMedicareā For All. Iām covered by Medicare, and I pay premiums and co-pays. I also have to buy supplemental insurance to help cover the 20% of medical bills that Medicare does not pay for. Itās deceptive for Bernie and others to call the plan āMedicareā.
The goal for Democrats should be a plan to provide universal, affordable healthcare to everyone as soon as possible. Medicare For All is one way to reach the goal of 100% coverage, but it is not the only way. There are other paths to universal, affordable coverage that are worthy of being explored.
Which Democratic Presidential Candidates Have Released Their Tax Returns?
āAnd yet, despite these grand gestures in the spirit of transparency, many of the 2020 hopefuls have yet to share their taxes with the voting public. While some candidates have divulged snapshots of their taxes during previous runs for lower office, only four candidates have made any additional returns public since they hit the 2020 trailāand in the waning days of tax season, only three have shared their returns for the 2018 fiscal year.ā
IMO, we should be fighting to shore up the ACA. After a decade, Americans are just starting to get the hang of that. I donāt think it makes sense to jump ahead to something that not only do they not really understand (single payer, universal health care, hybrid) but that has the added whammy of the socialism tag as well. Dems lost a lot of political capital just one decade ago on the ACA; even if you could point out that single payer, etc. improves Americansā way of life, the political headwinds are going to be very strong. If we try to make what we already have better, we can make a path to getting a single payer option.
Heās not deflecting. This is the issue heās going to run on, and I donāt think heāll back down on it, Sanders will die on that hill before he backs down. But it will be a loser for him and the candidates who present the pitfalls will score points.
> Medicare for all had been polling well, but in recent months itās dipped ā and in polls that explain that the proposal would eliminate private plans Medicare-for-All is generally underwater.
My own personal/professional believe is this is an overreach strategy for a campaign, where the current ground is decidedly in our favor. Trump and the GOP is literally trying to completely throw out ACA, less than 6 months after voters very loudly (and actually for 2 years, going back to the 2017 cycle) said they want to keep and improve their healthcare choices.
The sound strategy is simply to frame the GOP as the destroyers of healthcare entirely. And portray Democrats as the defenders. Reopening the can of worms about which of a jillion versions of single payer or universal coverge, or public options, etc, is not necessary and, IMO, going to distract from what is more probably going to happen and catch the entire field off guardā¦
ā¦which is every single Democratic candidate is focused completely on domestic issues. Partly because of the horrors that Trump has visited upon us domestically, and partly because none of them (with the exception of a Biden who is undeclared) has a lick of foreign policy experience.
Trump has a wide range of options to choose from to spark an international incident/war, and if he is eyeing increased legal problems (probable) and a tougher electoral map (also probable), he will almost certainly do so. He has longed to be a āwar time Presidentā since the moment he sat his fat ass in Oval Office.
Raise voters anxieties/fears/anger about a war, and history has shown us, domestic concerns drop to the bottom of the list of their concerns pretty quickly.
Oh,and one other thingā¦the long term debt curve is inverted right now. Historically, that is the most reliable signal that we are heading into economic slowdown/recession. A recession + a war is not the time to start talking about expansive new federal programs.
I think you pay for M4A by making college free for everyone, and tacking on the Green New Deal.
Seriously, I see Dems headed for massive defeat the way things are going.
Principles, not programs. Prioritization, not pandering.
It pushes Bernie further left.
As soon s possible after the next election, when we have enough political power to have a shot at it. Not right now.
Pushing for it now in the general election, once people understand what it actually means, will scare the horses. And Trump will win.
Precisely so. Public option for all? Thatās fabulous. Medicare for all? Iām honestly not super interested.
Also, will someone explain to me why Bernie calls his plan āMedicareā For All. Iām covered by Medicare, and I pay premiums and co-pays. I also have to buy supplemental insurance to help cover the 20% of medical bills that Medicare does not pay for. Itās deceptive for Bernie and others to call the plan āMedicareā.
Iāve always believed that when Sanders et al. talk about āMedicare for Allā what they are envisioning is actually āMedicaid for Allā. The name just conjures up more favorable connotations.