Ocasio-Cortez DESTROYS Meghan McCain live on air, gets huge ovation

[yuiyoshida]

[Apollo Zeus]

1. McCain reads the question off a sheet of paper

so of course she can't debate AOC.

Single payer is cheaper because every drug and procedure is negotiated downward in cost.

One of the downsides of ACA is that the limit on insurance companies profits is set as a percentage of gross so to raise their profits they raise the price of EVERYTHING. IOW 20% of $1 tril is more than 20% of $600 bil

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. I remember reading she gets her talking points from her pal Hannity.

[Apollo Zeus]

8. It's the same weak stuff over and over

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked "How will you pay for it?" I could afford a C-section in the US.

[kacekwl]

16. More likely her hubby.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. The numbers behind the tax on Wall Street are not specified

Is the color saturation tweaked up on that video? AOC's lipstick is very red, and MM's eyeshadow a bit heavy. Maybe it's for the studio cameras.

[CaptYossarian]

19. As far as the color:

In a clinic waiting room a few years back, the TV was unfortunately on FOX News. President Obama was speaking and you'd think it was Samuel Jackson. They had enhanced his pigmentation to make him darker for their bigoted, "scared Trumpless" viewers.

As to the tax on Wall Street, you'll rarely get specifics in this kind of setting. The neocon (McCain, in this instance), finding themselves against the ropes, will interrupt quicker than you can say Chris Matthews. Then they'll pretend the lefties cannot communicate as well and nobody will ever get the whole truth.

[elleng]

3. I like AOC SO much!

[Beakybird]

5. AOC is wicked smart. I wish she weren't backing Sanders. I like her a lot.

[zentrum]

6. AOC will be a great President someday.

She's a born leader.

[marble falls]

18. I want to be around when she is.

[warmfeet]

27. Me too.

[hangaleft]

49. For me, it's a good news/bad news thing

The bad news is that, at 70, it’s unlikely that I’ll be around long enough to see AOC’s ascendency to the presidency.

The good news is that, at 70, I won’t have to live long under a fascist dictatorship if, dog forbid, Trump gets re-elected. (Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I’m scared shitless that it’s a very real possibility, especially with the hackable voting machines without a paper trail.)

[zentrum]

52. I'm scared shitless too.

I think it could happen in 4 to 8 years for her.

[warmfeet]

26. Damn straight.

She will make a wonderful President.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

51. President AOC is inevitable... maybe even a follow-up to the Sanders Administration.

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[CurtEastPoint]

7. That McCain needs serious speech therapy. Whiny, nasal, unlistenable. And a twit.

[Raster]

10. But she's John McCain's daughter...

...<insert nasal whine>.

[irisblue]

22. #EntitledPrincessOfArizona

[Raster]

54. Thank you!!!

[irisblue]

55. McCain blocked a Twitter friend using that. 🙂

[a kennedy]

28. Ha ha.....kinda like her dad's nemesis..........the orange piece of shit.

[hangaleft]

50. She looks like a left wing radical compared to Liz Cheney (whose guts I hate with a passion)

[Kurt V.]

9. AOCs intellect and political savvy is something to behold.

[BeckyDem]

11. Happy to recommend. AOC, I LOVE her.

Megan McCain is a privileged dope.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Couldn't agree more.

[lapfog_1]

12. at 2:40 in this video, AOC says

"you take your premium and some of your health care costs right now that you give to a Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna whomever and you lower that number - the average American family pays about $10,000 dollars in health care costs - you lower that number and it transition over to a payroll tax and the average American gets to save tons more money"

Ok... just prior to this she says "do you know what percentage of Americans earn less that $40,000 a year? 60%.

So... lets see, if 60% make less than $40,000 but the Average American family pays $10,000 in health care costs... in addition to housing, food, taxes, gasoline, electricity, etc.

I'm not believing these numbers... there is no way someone making $40K a year is paying $10K of that in health care out of pocket.

So... where is that $10K payroll tax coming from to pay for the 60% who make less than $40K a year. It isn't coming from the 1%... that isn't going to happen.

[Midnight Writer]

14. You're comparing persons to families.

The person earns less than 40,000.

The family spends 10,000. Families often have multiple earners. The 10,000 figure is also an average.

[lapfog_1]

15. so the claim should be that the lowest 60% wage earning families

make at least $80K and possibly $120K as an average.

But I don't believe that number either.

[Midnight Writer]

20. Where did the "at least" come from?

If, for example, one spouse makes 15K and the other 36K, than each worker makes less than 40K as persons, but as a family they make 51K.

[lapfog_1]

23. so tell me what the average family (lowest 60%) actually earn

and how much this average family pays in out of pocket health care... and how much (on average) their employers pay... and how much (on average) their health care costs.

Don't throw around numbers like AOC did which are highly misleading.

Let's be accurate... and then explain what payroll tax is going to levied and who will pay more in payroll taxes and by how much.

At the end of the presentation the video producer started talking about 90% marginal tax rates. So I just want to know how much *I* am going to pay in taxes for all of these programs (tuition, health care, free child care, Green New Deal).

I mean I might be for it if someone gives me actual proposed spending, cuts in other government spending, and increased taxes on "the rich" (which might mean people like me, depending on what the proposals are).

Someone sit down and grind out all the numbers. Where the numbers aren't known, put in a range and create multiple possibilities and rate the probability of each one.

No, I am not asking you to do this, but there are some bright people working for Warren and Sanders... why can't they do it?

[Midnight Writer]

42. Friend, I am not questioning your opinion. I pointed out an error in your math.

I honestly thought you were misunderstanding the story.

Next time, I'll just let it pass, OK?

[Farmer-Rick]

24. According to the last census

The median household income was $63,179 (+/- $420). It doesn't double when 2 incomes come into a family.

https://wallethacks-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/wallethacks.com/average-median-income-in-america/amp/?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#Median-Income-for-Households-by-Age

[lapfog_1]

25. what is the average family income of the lowest 60% of wage earners.

AOC implied that it was $40K... now it has been explained that this is the average wage of individuals in that lowest 60%... so the claim that the average family spends $10K on health care is possible because there are multiple earners in a family.

That's fine, I just want the actual numbers.

[Gore1FL]

33. I think she said that was the top for those 60%, not the average.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if such families couldn't afford healthcare under the current situation. Isn't the whole point of this exercise is to make healthcare available to people who cannot pay that much?

[lapfog_1]

34. yes, we want to provide health care for all

as an asperation, this is good.

Now, what will it cost, and who will pay for it... That's always the rub.

[Gore1FL]

35. For starters, we can stop emptying the treasury into billionaire's pockets.

Ultimately we pay for this anyway. We may as well do it in as organized and inexpensively as possible. Healthcare, education, infrastructure, and technology investments are gold.

The biggest problem that we have to contend we, from my view, is the cost of undoing the damage of 40 years of Reaganomics. Each day we put it off the price tag for the middle class goes up.

[Farmer-Rick]

41. Make the most profitable corporations in the world pay some taxes for a change.

Make the oil Corporation pay their drilling fees.

Stop giving $100 million farms subsidies.

Do anything except funnel more of our national wealth to the filthy rich.

[HootieMcBoob]

31. A lot of the time a part of that premium is paid for by the employer

If you're lucky enough to have coverage through where you work.

My family's total insurance cost annually is somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000.

You heard that right...$35,000!

it's mostly covered by my spouse's company and about $250 per pay period comes out of her check so it doesn't feel like we're paying that much. But under a single payer a big hunk of that $35,000 could go to wages or some other benefit.

That's the cost for a family of three by the way.

[HootieMcBoob]

32. And that's just the premium

we also pay co-pays and for prescriptions and other out of pocket costs.

This system is the worst.

[Azathoth]

45. Not sure her numbers are accurate, but average medical costs can be skewed

by the insane costs of treatment. All you need are a few sick people to pull the average higher.

She may also be including employer contributions to health care premiums.

[MoonchildCA]

53. That $10K payroll tax will come from the same place it does now.

Someone else’s taxes. Right now it’s in the form of subsidies, or tax credits, probably not from the 1%, as they don’t pay their fair share.
For our insurance, my husband and I spend less than $300, but the actual cost is over $11,000. We’ll spend a lot more, of course, when we need to use it. A family making $40,000, probably pays very little, if any, premium out of pocket, but they are still paying it in the form of tax credits.

These tax credits go to a for-profit industry, and we already spend more on health care per capita than any other nation. It stands to reason, that a single payer system could, in the long run, save money.

[Celerity]

17. Brian Tyler Cohen, the video host, goes all massive gaslighting in the middle of the video

He rants about how none of Bernie's ideas and philosophies are socialism and that to call Bernie a socialist is a RW SMEAR, when Bernie himself calls himself a democratic SOCIALIST.

No, he cannot have it both ways. Democratic socialism is a real thing. One of its main core tenants is the expropriation of the means of production by the state or by socialised forces. MANY of Bernie's supporters and aiding elements at top level, especially the intellectual driving forces behind him like the DSA (which actually goes beyond mere socialism and has REAL Trotskyist communist elements inside it) and then mags like Jacobin (which is a REAL socialist magazine, and does NOT support social democratic forms of government, like we have here in Sweden, etc., as the end game) DO ADVOCATE for the expropriation of the means of production. Those groups I just listed are also profoundly anti-Democratic Party at their taproots.

It is all a giant gaslighting mechanism. Words, underpinning political philosophies, labels, and definitions matter, especially when large chunks of Bernie's supporting apparatus completely advocate exactly what people like Brian Tyler Cohen are trying to flim-flam their way out of through dishonest denialism.

Even worse, is that Sanders (if we take Cohen at face value) is completely and politically suicidally, in reactionary America, falsely adopting (again if we are to believe the spinmeisters from his campaign) the democratic SOCIALIST label for himself, which is going to be hung around every single one of our federal office level (and state level) candidates' necks, and cost us the House as well.

[Kurt V.]

29. if you watched that part that's on you. i cut out then. I'm well able to draw my own collusion.

[CaptYossarian]

30. Everybody wants to think Democratic Socialism is a kind of boogeyman.

England has had DS in their country since 1900. Over there, it's called Fabian Socialism--from the Fabian Society.

The Fabian Society gained popularity over the years and evolved into today's Labour Party, the closest entity to our Democratic Party.

Some of the most famous global Democratic Socialists are Golda Meir, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Dubya's good friend and colleague, PM Tony Blair. None of these people are particularly evil and are, in fact, admired by plenty of Americans.

The overall goal of both Democrats and Socialists is to make life better for everyone. Our party needs to appeal to both left and center to beat this horrible tyrant.

This rant is directed at all DUers who are sniping and dividing us when we should band together. I'm not attacking you, Celerity.

[Celerity]

36. I am a London-raised UK/US dual citizen and it is bizarre to try and claim that Tony Blair is a

valid example of a democratic socialist. He was amongst the most archetypal 3rd-way neoliberals and is HATED by actual socialists, democratic of otherwise. I would lay more than a few quid on a wager that over 90% of Bernie's core groups (especially the higher up you go, and especially within the intellectual circles that underpin vast parts of his campaign's zeitgeist) detest Blair with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

Btw, Blair is a war criminal, like Bush, with the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands. I know almost no one who admires him, and that cuts across a multiplicity of political perspectives and philosophies. The stain of his involvement in the murderous and illegal Iraq War is far too large.

As for the Fabians, they were borne from a crucible of support for eugenics and the rabid support of the British empire. They will forever suffer from the curse of that fruit from those poisonous trees.


you said

The overall goal of both Democrats and Socialists is to make life better for everyone.

Real socialism has always ended in tears and destruction (and please do not try and conflate social democracy, like we have here in the Nordics, with actual true socialism) so you will forgive me if I give a HARD pass to dragging our party into that paradigm of failure.

[CaptYossarian]

37. Mainly, I was trying to end the infighting that permeates this site.

Divided we fall.

The people I thought of that would admire Blair are the Dubya voters. I built a big tent with that sentence and my examples.

[Celerity]

38. The division was baked into the cake when Sanders declared.

I am fine with all the rest of the candidates (Gabbard and Steyer are inconsequential, other than Steyer's one hail mary pointless shot in SC.)

I SO wish Warren would take hammer and tongs to Bernie. She is a key to preventing his disastrous nomination.

[CaptYossarian]

40. It's funny. I had Mayor Pete as my candidate until Warren handed Bernie his ass

not too long ago. Now she went after Bloomberg.

I think she's turning the corner. I'd still vote for Pete in November, just as I'd vote for anyone with a D after their name.

[Farmer-Rick]

43. Too bad for you...not so bad for the rest of us.

[Celerity]

44. No, too bad for all of us, not just the US, but the world, if Bernie gets the nomination & procedes

to lose not only the POTUS election, but is such an anchor around our other candidates necks that we lose the House as well.

[Farmer-Rick]

46. You have been watching too much corporate news.

[Celerity]

47. lol, and you have been watching too much TYT/DSA/Jacobin-style gaslighting ops nt

[melman]

21. AOC is the best

[ouija]

39. I personally like

TV show host who doesn’t get owned.

[MontanaMama]

48. AOC is way better at explaining

all of this than Bernie is.