Bernie Sanders' Health Care Debate Was a Good Idea for a Very Simple Reason

[Donkees]

SEP. 26, 2017 11:39 AM

Excerpts:

When CNN announced last week that it would hold a debate on health care between Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham and progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, the reaction in some Democratic circles was anxiety. “I’m not sure single payer vs Graham-Cassidy is the debate we want right now,” mused former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. With the Affordable Care Act once more on the ropes, the argument seemed to go, Sanders was choosing to advance his personal politics ahead of the priorities of the moment.

Those fears were unfounded. A Monday night cable news special was never going to be the make-or-break moment for health care reform, but more importantly, Sanders’ skeptics, and his Republican debating opponents, misunderstood his entire approach to health care reform—no one in the Senate has as much riding on Obamacare’s survival as he does.

Sanders and Klobuchar returned again and again to the Congressional Budget Office analysis that showed that Graham-Cassidy would throw millions off health insurance. In defense, Graham and Cassidy couldn’t really say what their bill would do, because the entire point of their proposal is to change Obamacare’s spending into block grants and let governors and state legislators decide for themselves how health funds should be spent. Sanders pointed out that governors and state legislators had all pretty much decided before Obamacare that people with pre-existing conditions were on their own. Graham didn’t have much to say about that. Instead, he and Cassidy frequently tried to make hay out of Sanders’ politics.

Sanders, of course, was happy to defend the principle of a single-payer system, but he never let that get in the way of the task on hand, nor did he reject the incrementalism the Senate sometimes lives and breathes by. Of course Medicare-for-all won’t be passing anytime soon, he said. But in the meantime, there were bipartisan fixes to made to Obamacare, and opportunity to act on prescription drug prices—an area of agreement, Sanders noted, between he and President Trump. They might even consider lowering the age of Medicare or offering a Medicaid or Medicare buy-in option—ideas his Democratic colleagues Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Chris Murphy of Connecticut are currently working on.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/bernie-sanders-health-care-debate-was-a-good-idea-for-a-very-simple-reason/

[GaryCnf]

1. You would have thought

that those 100 and 200 reply OPs that excoriated Sanders for participating in this debate and accused him of being out for himself would have gone back after this and edited their OPs to say

THANK YOU BERNIE AND AMY, you did us proud.

[guillaumeb]

3. Well said. eom

[Ms. Toad]

4. Not likely.

Too busy still blasting him - and calling him a partner of the Republicans in the debate.

[SHRED]

5. They are too busy...

...defending David Gergen.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Yep. The concern itself wasn't totally "off the wall". The preemptive agonizing over it however was

Given that so many felt a need to register their urgent concerns, one might reasonably think they would be on DU today evaluating what actually happened, compared to their worst case scenario version of what they assumed would happen.

[KTM]

16. I think they had to get new pearls

And fainting couches, and spend some time un-wringing their hands.

You know there was a collective sigh of relief amongst quite a few here when dipshit started tweeting the Daily Distraction on Sunday, thankful that there was something else to focus on other than the glaring lack of "Well, we were wrong (but we wont ever admit it)" posts.

[Raster]

24. surely, you jest...

...pigs will fly over frozen hell first.

[guillaumeb]

2. One might almost think that some Democrats might not be pleased that Sanders

mounted such a strong defense of the ACA, while also holding the position that the ACA is not an long term actual solution to the problems with healthcare in the US. The ACA is a bandage attempting to cover heavy bleeding. But yes, until Medicare can be passed, the ACA should be supported as an interim measure.

But, in my view, Democrats should not think that the ACA is the best that can be done.

Recommended.

[frazzled]

6. I don't quite get it

How do these two statements gibe?

At the debate the other night, this is described: "Of course Medicare-for-all won’t be passing anytime soon, he said. But in the meantime, there were bipartisan fixes to made to Obamacare . . ."

Then an op-ed in USA Today this morning titled "Time is ripe for Medicare for all", he said this: "Now is the time for Medicare for all." And he doesn't mention fixes to Obamacare at all. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/09/25/medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-editorials-debates/105971268/ )

It can't be true that "of course Medicare-for-all won't be passing anytime soon" and "Now is the time for Medicare for all."

PS: My question is really rhetorical. I fully understand the gap between the two opposing approaches by one person.

[bahrbearian]

7. He should have said 2009 was the time for Medicare for all.

[JCanete]

8. Now is the time to get people fired up about medicare for all. Obviously republicans

aren't going to be the ones to pass it. We should ride it into the next election cycles while the republicans contrast the proposal with the worst shit possible over and over again.

[TCJ70]

9. It can be time for something, while there being no chance of it happening. Climate change action...

...for instance. The chances of Republicans bringing up any meaningful reforms on that are slim to none...doesn't mean it isn't he time for it.

[leftstreet]

11. +1

Excellent example

[frazzled]

12. Um, no

Not when we are talking about serious legislation that needs to be accomplished in the short term. It only impedes that process by setting unattainable goals that distract from the attainable ones. (Though it sure does fire up a politician's true believers.)

So no, the right time is after fixes are made to the ACA.

[dae]

13. Sen. Sanders has consistently said fixes to ACA are top priority..

However, Medicare-for-all, single-payer, Universal healthcare or whatever you wish to call it is the ultimate goal for him.

[HopeAgain]

21. Distract who?

The Democrats are going to forget to shore up the ACA because they would rather have single-payor?? Makes no sense.

Clearly the concern is the person saying it, not what is being said.

[Autumn]

23. Got any idea when the Dems can get those fixes done to the ACA?

[Mr.Bill]

27. Starting in January of 2019, hopefully. n/t

[Donkees]

20. 'Ripe' in terms of readiness at the grassroots level driving changes.

[jalan48]

14. Bernie outrage followed by Bernie amnesia followed by Bernie outrage followed by......

[disillusioned73]

30. Yahtzee!!

[Mr.Bill]

15. The real question in my mind

is why in the hell did Cassidy and Graham agree to the debate in the first place? Anyone with a pulse can take them apart on their ridiculous bill.

[Plucketeer]

17. Those two idiots came across as piss-poor

stand-up comics! Their monotonous bullcrap about how states can better tailor health care needs to what their citizens needs are, is utter nonsense! It's as if each state was a cage in the zoo. You wouldn't feed the lions vegetables and you wouldn't give meat to the elephants and giraffes! DUH! When someone's sick, their not gonna care if they're treated by a Tennesee doctor or a Maine doctor. So stupid to assume otherwise!

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. obviously just a show for their base back home

To counter any talk by the deplorables about them being anti-Trump and show that they will do his bidding just like the rest. At least, dang nabbit, they tried.

[melman]

32. To hear some here tell it

You would have thought those two were brilliant debaters laying traps all over for the Hated One.

[moda253]

18. Wait I'm sorry who's debate? WTF?

NM

[George II]

26. Yes, I just posted something very similar.

[lunamagica]

31. And they keep insisting it's not about him...

[MGKrebs]

22. "Those fears were unfounded."

Not really true.
It's easy to say after the fact, but none of us really knew how that was going to go ahead of time. A little anxiety was totally normal. And you have to admit, most of us have seen posts around here calling for single payer or nothing. There is definitely a push for that. This could easily have been his moment to make that play.

Anyway, it turned out well.

[George II]

25. Correction to Mother Jones' story:

It was the Amy Klobuchar / Bernie Sanders / Lindsay Graham / Bill Cassidy Health Care Debate.

[Donkees]

28. Meanwhile, a take about how Bernie let ACA repeal happen by talking about single payer is taken ...

Meanwhile, a take about “how Bernie let ACA repeal happen by talking about single payer” is taken to its resting place

Link to tweet

[Wounded Bear]

29. The thing is, I was never really worried about the Dem presentation...

even a 'Bernie-ized' version of it.

The real value is how the Repubs react when asked real questions about the subject matter. Their typical campaign rhetoric rarely comes across in a real debate/discussion as having any merit, or even any real substance behind it. The bottom line is: They got nothing.

[Voltaire2]

33. The effort was aimed at MFA as much as Sanders.

While lip service is paid to the "goal" of a public universal health care system, the reality is that there is significant opposition within the Democratic Party to actual proposals to implement it. The by now entirely irrational opposition to anything Sanders is amusing and pathetic, the determination to oppose serious progressive programs that could help bring Democrats back to power has the potential to wreck any revival.