Elizabeth Warren stumbling over the Medicare for All question pains me. Because nobody is willing to admit that things like that might slightly raise taxes on the middle class. Instead of changing the subject, we should tackle it head-on. It’s not about socialism, or giving people free stuff who don’t deserve it.
It’s about giving everybody more bang for their buck. There’s nothing more capitalist than that. And there is nothing Americans love more than a bargain. Treat it as such. Quit running away from it. Embrace it for what it is: More Bang For Your Buck.
Was this story worth reading?
Recommending and sharing stories helps us decide which stories are mostimportant to show our readers.
Keyboard navigation:
- ( L ) Recommend
- ( r ) Reply
- ( p ) Parent
- ( o ) Open/Close
- ( j ) Next
- ( k ) Prev
- ( 1 ) First Comment
- ( 2 ) Last Comment
- ( J ) Next Unread
- ( K ) Prev Unread
- ( esc ) Unfocus Text Field
- ( P ) Edit/Preview
- ( S ) Submit
- ( c ) Cancel
That is what she is saying.
No co-pay tax. No insurance premium tax. No out-of-network tax. No deductible tax. No out-of-pocket tax. No loophole generic drug tax. No long term care tax.
Yeah I think taxes should be raised at all levels, to pay for things like universal health care, cutting our debt, shoring up social security and Medicare, and a desperately needed infrastructure overhaul with new and refurbished highways, bridges, trains, tunnels, etc. Polls show the Americans people generally do not have a problem with tax increases when they like what they're getting for it. Both the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts polled poorly. Bill Clinton ended his presidency with sky high approval ratings after he raised taxes on virtually everyone and gave America its first (and last) budget surpluses since the early sixties.
I like the sentiment and idea. Yes, we need to push it as less expensive for everyone all the time. Bernie did it to a degree in the last debate by pointing out how expensive our system is. I detest it when Biden and Pete and Amy pile on with rightwing points about how M4A will cost us 30 to 40 trillion when it will save us more. Bernie should turn around and ask them how much their system will cost when we could knock it in half.
And we ought to be talking in business terms about our MILITARY SPENDING too. After all, it is our runaway military budget that makes it impossible for Americans to have the level of affordable health care enjoyed by all the other so-called “developed” nations.
Military spending has always been a favorite topic for demagogues. Anybody who dares to suggest there might be a teeny-weeny problem with the US spending more than the next 10 militaries COMBINED. And most of those 10 are supposedly our allies — at least they were before trump fucked up the world. Just for the record, here is one accounting of it
That grossly understates US military spending. We spend well of a trillion dollars a year when you include the CIA, NSA and all the other dark budgets. But the key point is that the other 9 include UK, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy, and Brazil, all of whom used to be our friends.
It is high time that we used business language to discuss this. We should be asking, where is the return on investment? We should be asking, are our assets are aligned with the challenges of 2020 and beyond? We should be asking, do we need to do some “right sizing” of the military so that we can be more competitive economically with countries like China?
The US and Chinese economies are almost exactly equal now with China on a path to have a much larger economy than the US in the next 5 years. Yet they are spending about 1/8 as much as the US. Are we making wise investments by spending so much of our wealth on military systems, most of which are utterly irrelevant in today’s world of cyber-warfare and psych ops.
But, but, but look at all we have “accomplished” in the ME. LOL. Talk about a negative return. One major problem is that our military is SO strong that our leaders are tempted to use it way too much. We used to have the ability to fight two major land wars at once, and wtf is up with that? Canada and Mexico going to attack at the same time? Time for some common sense to be applied here and cut back on the machismo.
One major problem is that our military is SO strong that our leaders are tempted to use it way too much.
I agree. Just a slight quibble in terminology. I would say “One major problem is that our military is so macho that our leaders are tempted to use it way too much.”
“Strong” is a very elusive term in a world where battles are increasingly asymmetrical and often fought in cyber-space and through propaganda. The old white men with their hands on the levers associate “power” with the ability to blow things up.
Someone needs to tell people to sit down and calculate what they actually pay for health care each year, including their own and their employers contribution to the premiums, co-pays, deductibles, prescriptions, etc. Then they need to add, say, half of that total back into their yearly net income. All of a sudden, that new tax looks more like a refund.
Bingo.
