They do??? Do we have free healthcare that we don’t have to pay for today or something? I wish someone had told me.
The “your taxes will go up” thing is so ridiculous.
So Bernie is far left because you say he’s far left. Got it.
Well in fairness, our country did just elect Trump, so I think Reagan now qualifies as far left in American political discourse.
Cut military spending in half. Poof 300 billion to spend in our borders, on whatever we think is important.
Crazy talk, I know! We really do need to spend more than the rest of the world combined, cause they’re all out to get us. I mean, they invade us all the time! Oh wait, that’s us.
I don’t need to post graphs for support for Trump, do I?
Elections (the way our country does them) are poor indicators of what people want, sadly.
Just to be clear, that was sarcasm ;-)
That’s for damn sure. We live in a country where calling someone “liberal” pretty much counts as an epithet, and conservative a compliment. The ship of state doesn’t turn on a dime, this has been a right-of-center country for some time. Now in the Trump era, it’s also a bullshitting, pussy grabbing lunatic country as well, I guess.
I know, I know. Your comment was hilarious actually. I just… I just can’t even sometimes.
What world is this?
One that would be better off consumed in nuclear hellfire. Maybe the cockroach people who build a new civilization upon the ashes of ours will do better.
The awesome thing about the 2016 election for me is I no longer fear worldwide catastrophes like meteor strikes and whatnot.
One absolutely enormous downside to 2016 is the fear of my kids emulating the behavior of our douchebag in chief as a role model. And I have to be really careful about terminology like “douchebag in chief” around my kids because I’d really like them to have some respect for the office specifically and authority in general.
You know what, I’ll cop to that. I live in Seattle and definitely feel like I fit in here much better than any place I’ve lived, but I was raised in the south, went to church, all that crap. I think I still carry some of that around - I have deep ambivalence about abortion, for one thing, even if I believe the procedure should be legal. Hey nobody fits neatly into those tiny pigeonholes society keeps shoving us into right?
Put together a real plan that actually balances on paper (i.e. Not Bernies’ plan, since it didn’t even come close to balancing) and then pitch that idea.
I’m not arguing for or against the idea of a single payer system here. I’m just pointing out that the American people balk at the idea of having their taxes go way up, which is absolutely required for that kind of system to work. Not just raising taxes on the rich. Not just minor tax increases. You’re talking major tax increases on the middle class to pay for that system.
And you can try to make the argument that they won’t actually lose any money since they currently pay for insurance… but you’re going to run into two major problems with that argument:
- You butt heads against the exact same folks who complain about the individual mandate, since you are then effectively forcing them to get insurance
- You have to totally restructure the economy, since tons (most?) folks currently get their insurance through their employers. So that’s not really money they think about themselves “paying”. To actually make it work out evenly, you’d need to force all the employers to give their employees raises to match their insurance expenditures, and I’m not really sure how you could mandate that, from a purely legal perspective.
The end result is largely just a factor of peoples perceptions. People balk at the idea of having their taxes raised significantly. Logical or not, that’s just the way it is.
So to answer your challenge the plan must balance and must meet whatever arbitrary political hurdles you put in front of it? People won’t accept tax increases or an individual mandate and there is no way to get rid of employer based insurance without re-inventing the economy?
Then,yes, by the terms you’ve set out this cannot be done. Weird how every other developed nation managed to do it. Witches.
I can say at the Dem county meeting I went to last weekend- Bernie was the most popular politician there, Dem or not.
Most of the enthusiasm you need is going to be Berniecrat, not mainstream Democrat.
Yeah, he’s a real warrior for the Left.
BTW, Jason Chaffetz now says he may not serve out the remainder of his term and could resign fairly soon.
Which, what in the world?
Sanders has done more to oppose the Surrender Caucus than just about any actual Democrat. It’s okay to stop fighting against it trigger, he’s not actually running against Hillary any more.