2020 Democratic presidential primary

The reason to ban private insurance from competing with the public system is that it would lead to a two-tier system where the wealthy could buy a higher or faster level of care, potentially draining resources from everyone else's. I guess if you regulated private insurers so heavily that they couldn't do this, you would avoid the problem but you would also eliminate the reason for a private insurer to exist at all, so that seems m/l like a ban.

#YANGinginthere

we're facing an extinction event, we need leadership

With a two-party system and all-or-nothing voting, the US requires you to vote for the least-intolerable option, rather than picking the closest-to-your-ideal first and then numbering the others in preference.

It's absolutely wild and unprecedented that the primary vote is almost certainly going to be between two candidates who are both good-to-great on most issues. They're both too old, but they're experienced and visibly productive. Bernie is more fiery and has single-handedly changed the national narrative to a point where universal health-care is no longer a pipe dream, but Warren is firing off Quite Good policies week by week, and getting great at campaigning (15k at her Seattle rally on the weekend, enraging Trump just on numbers). Yes, Warren is in favour of individuals owning businesses, but she has shitloads of plans for antitrust and re-regulation that would ameliorate some of the most destructive effects of late capitalism.

Would I personally get behind a candidate who promised to open all prisons, refill them with bankers & pharma lobbyists, and give billionaires three months to divest or have their heads placed on pikes? Probably! Is there the faintest chance of getting someone with a better agenda than Warren, with more and better policy propositions drafted and published already, and with popular support that matches Bernie, on the ticket by next year? No.

Bernie's a remarkable organiser. Warren looks like a better leader of one branch of government right now. You can bemoan specifics of her policies not meeting your preferences, but you're blessed if your lesser-of-two-shitbags choice has to be between those two.

boomin' post, sic

As opposed to the mighty leadership of Joe Bipartisan:

“This is the God’s truth,” Biden had said as he told the story. “My word as a Biden.”

Except almost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect. Based on interviews with more than a dozen U.S. troops, their commanders and Biden campaign officials, it appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened.

Biden visited Kunar province in 2008 as a U.S. senator, not as vice president. The service member who performed the celebrated rescue that Biden described was a 20-year-old Army specialist, not a much older Navy captain. And that soldier, Kyle J. White, never had a Silver Star, or any other medal, pinned on him by Biden. At a White House ceremony six years after Biden’s visit, White stood at attention as President Barack Obama placed a Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, around his neck.

The upshot: In the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony.

cheers, Alfred!

whatever they may say now, the last election suggests the vast majority of Bernie people would fall in line behind Warren (and, I hope, vice versa). Biden? not so sure it would be so easy to keep the enthusiasm up. xps

xp Sund4r: Actually I think the reason private insurance is banned is not so much tiers of care, but because otherwise private insurers would drop more risky/costly populations onto the public option.

As for banning private insurance, I think simply not subsidizing it would be enough. The current system where private health insurance is tax advantaged to both employer and employed compared to ordinary income or other benefits began in WWII, because the War Labor Board feared large strikes due to wage controls. Treating private health insurance premiums similarly to other financial services in tax law would markedly reduce incentives for private insurance. Yes, there would be millionaires with better coverage than Medicare, but so long as that population in small enough to little effect aggregate demand, healthcare pricing, and the parasitic load of excess health care/finance on the rest of the economy, I don't care.

I'd like to keep Greenland, so I obviously hope everyone in the US will do whatever they can to get the Dem candidate elected, but if it's Biden, I'm honestly pretty happy I won't have to vote for him and tell others to do the same...

xp Sund4r: Actually I think the reason private insurance is banned is not so much tiers of care, but because otherwise private insurers would drop more risky/costly populations onto the public option.

That's kind of what Medicare and Medicaid already do to a large extent. Putting more healthy people into govt healthcare and raising overall taxes going to pay for it would actually make it more financially sound, not less.

The 4 Democratic presidential candidates who cosponsored Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Senate bill either no longer support it or won’t say if they do https://t.co/v2bJxFjjlh

— Politics Insider (@Politicsinsider) August 20, 2019

I don’t take “we didn’t hear back from them” as indicative of anything

Warren will probably release her own legislative proposal, Gillibrand has other concerns right now, who cares whether Booker answers phone calls from @Politicsinsider

lmao that story is so bullshit, business insider is trash

it's one of the top 50 worst websites of all time

*clutches pearls*

NEW tonight in Florence, SC: @BernieSanders revealed that he will soon be rolling out a new policy proposal to “eliminate medical debt in this country.”

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) August 30, 2019

MORE on @BernieSanders new plan to eliminate all medical debt. Sanders talked to reporters after he met w/locals at an outdoor fair. I asked Sanders if his plan would retroactively end medical debt. He said, “you know, this is something we’re working on and we will introduce.” pic.twitter.com/iTC7jIeiCf

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) August 30, 2019

I grew up with the Democratic mayor of Florence SC. He won by exactly one vote

records don't matter. responding to constituents is what matters.

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 7:00 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

catching up on this thread now, and I still don’t get this. you do know that when you’re president, your constituency is the entire country, right?

or is it, k3vin? or is it...?

and what is a “record” if not a list of legislative responses to one’s constituents? the entire line of thought strikes me as fallacious

Shakey the ward heeler

Actually I think the reason private insurance is banned is not so much tiers of care, but because otherwise private insurers would drop more risky/costly populations onto the public option.

This seems like the logical consequence of a tiered system of health care to me. If the point is that the existence of tiers concerns you less than the consequences of a tiered system, that's fair.

A reporter asked Beto in Charlottesville how he’d reassure people afraid the gov’t would take their assault weapons away.

“I want to be really clear that that’s exactly what we are going to do,” he said. If you own an AK-47 or AR-15, “you’ll have to sell them to the government.”

— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) August 31, 2019

Fuck is Beto good now?

4th Reboot did the trick!

he’s actually been p consistent about the buyback, the only candidate as far as I’m aware who’s come out in support of that. it’s not nothing

Fuck is Beto good now?

― president of deluded fruitcakes anonymous (silby), Saturday, August 31, 2019 8:56 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he's always been "good"! just not POTUS good

bingto

he seems to have found his voice of late, more grounded in himself and more willing to call bs. it’s as though he realizes now that he can figuratively stand on tables without needing to do so literally.

RIP Literally Standing On Tables Beto

I had an idea for a movie where Biden dies but the party establishment is so convinced that he's the only candidate to beat Trump that the cover up the death and continue to run his corpse for president. Weekend at Biden's.

that's good, sounds funny

"uncle joe's putting his foot in his mouth again!"

"that's not possible, he can't talk any--"

"look!"

*pranksters have moved biden's foot literally into his gaping maw*

his whole foot

right in there

Lol they literally filmed a Weekend at Bernie’s tv pilot where they ran a dead John Laroquette for President

my current guess is that once Biden craters in Iowa (going to idk who, but probably either Sanders or Warren) and then either Sanders/Warren takes New Hampshire, black voters are likely to ditch Biden in South Carolina - that will be the decisive contest for him.

likewise, I would guess that Harris is hoping to outperform Biden in Iowa (he got less than 1% of the vote last time) and will be eager to build on that as a way to elbow him aside for the black vote in SC

Biden’s past performances are irrelevant. he was not a former Veep in 2008.

Beto's acting this way cuz he has nothing to lose.

while I really appreciate beto’s stance, it’s a pretty bad sign for those who’d like to see him run for senate

Beto running for Senate is dead anyway, after the “not good enough” line that would be used completely out of context.

Biden’s past performances are irrelevant. he was not a former Veep in 2008

yes, his being an even bigger babbling piece of shit now is what's relevant.

what an accomplishment, filling Obama's need for a right-wing banker Dem to please the Wall St wing 11 years ago

New: Elizabeth Warren is endorsing Jay Inslee’s climate change plan. The two met in Seattle last weekend, and in that meeting, Warren told the governor she’s getting behind his climate platform. W/ @GregJKrieg https://t.co/JFP6IEJwGx

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) September 3, 2019

good

lol
https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/kamala-harris-2020-candidate-luther-campbell-support-black-voters/294286

would be awesome if 2 Live Crew endorsement proves pivotal

lol at Harris out-Bookering Booker