JDPriestly
JDPriestly's JournalActually, here are the economics of it.
It won't take that much of a plan. Medicare already exists. And we will save money with Medicare for all.
The economist is at the U. of Mass. The Wall Street Journal mangled his math to come up with their article criticizing Bernie's plan for Medicare for all. The economist set the Wall Street Journal straight on Huffington Post. Here you go. Medicare for all is a winner for all.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-friedman/the-wall-street-journal-k_b_8143062.html
The Journal correctly puts the additional federal spending for health care under HR 676 (a single payer health plan) at $15 trillion over ten years. It neglects to add, however, that by spending these vast sums, we would, as a country, save nearly $5 trillion over ten years in reduced administrative waste, lower pharmaceutical and device prices, and by lowering the rate of medical inflation.
These financial savings would be felt by businesses and by state and local governments who would no longer be paying for health insurance for their employees; and by retirees and working Americans who would no longer have to pay for their health insurance or for co-payments and deductibles. Beyond these financial savings, HR 676 would also save thousands of lives a year by expanding access to health care for the uninsured and the underinsured.
The economic benefits from Senator Sander's proposal would be even greater than these static estimates suggest because a single-payer plan would create dynamic gains by freeing American businesses to compete without the burden of an inefficient and wasteful health insurance system. As with Senator Sanders' other proposals, the economic boom created by HR 676, including the productivity boost coming from a more efficient health care system and a healthier population, would raise economic output and provide billions of dollars in additional tax revenues to over-set some of the additional federal spending.
Summary of 10-year projections
Because of the nearly $10 trillion in savings, it is possible to fund over $4.5 trillion in additional services while still reducing national health care spending by over $5 trillion. With these net savings, the additional $14.7 trillion in federal spending brings savings to the private sector (and state and local governments) of over $19.7 trillion.
More at the link.
They needn't worry. This is not 1972. The historical parameters are very different.
This is the time for a progressive populist government. Look at the history. Look at the present. Look at the wave of young people backing Bernie.
Hillary may do well in the polls, but in a time of change as drastic as we are experiencing, it will be a question of who is excited enough to get out and vote, and not of who is doing well in the polls. I will vote for other Democrats, but I will not vote for Hillary. Many people who want real change will, unlike me, just stay home and not vote for Hillary or anyone else.
1968 and 1972 were the beginning of the end of a long liberal era that began with the election of Roosevelt in 1932, just 40 years earlier and that began to move toward conservatism with the election of Eisenhhower in 1952. (Eisenhower would be a Democrat by today's standards.) Kennedy was elected on charisma in 1960. The country was still liberal, but beginning to become more conservative.
Goldwater ran in 1965. It was the era in which the John Birch Society and the neo-conservatives undermined the appeal of liberal thought as much as they could. (We did not call them neo-conservatives then.)
The 1972 election was the moment at which the anger of segments of the population about anti-discrimination legislation and frustration over the Viet Nam War led to a Republican victory. From there, the country inched toward a more and more conservative government. Jimmy Carter was a respite, but since Reagan was elected, even the Democrats have been conservative compared to FDR, Truman and LBJ's domestic policy.
It's time to return to our liberal roots. Adams, Jefferson, Madison and the rest were the liberal revolutionaries in terms of public policy of their time. That is our heritage. America has traditionally been the place where humans experimented with liberal social ideas. We should continue to be that.
Hillary is, in her thinking and political philosophy more of the Reagan conservatism lineage.
It's time to meet the new economic and social reality of our time with new solutions. Bernie is offering that.
When our country was young, settlers could claim land, pay at most very little for it, and if they cultivated and kept it safe and useful for society, it was theirs. We were in that sense a socialisty state from the beginning. We did not sell the land to a few fat-cat landowners. We allowed those who wished to have it and use it well to have it and use it. What could be more socialist than that? No lords and ladies -- the norm at the time in Europe. Just people sharing the land and making something of it, helping each other build houses and barns, selling and buying what they could produce and what they could import. That was life in the new territories of the north. The South repeated the same old social structures of Europe worsening it with slavery who were even worse off than European peasants and the serfs of the Middle Ages.
So it is time for a move toward populism. It has been 35 years since Reagan took over. 43 since the conservatives took over in 1972. It's time for the country to accommodate the new reality: we have become a society in which huge corporations own much of our land; we are a nation of debtors, not a nation of investors or capitalists; many, a large percentage of us survive based on our intellects, our education, our technological skills and not based mostly on our physical strength or skills.
In the early days of our country, our government gave those willing to work the opportunity to have land. It is simply right and in the tradition of our country that today, those willing and able to work should be given the opportunity of education and assisted in establishing themselves in using that education. That's how our country became great, and that is how we can remain great.
Healthcare is also basic. We should all help make healthcare affordable for each of us. We need to reform our legal system so that we have a healthier society. Prison is not the solution to crime. We need to find out what would be a better solution to crime.
Economic disparity is dividing our society and creating a helpless underclass. That is not the American way. When we tolerate that kind of economic disparity, we are betraying the principle that our country is founded on: that we are all created equal. We don't have to have the exact same amount of money or economic power, but we do all deserve enough equality to make every life one of dignity and self-respect. We need a society in which we work together and see each other as valuable, equal individuals. We do not need a society in which the rich run everything from our schools to our churches to our government. No way. That is not the American dream.
Hillary does not represent a movement toward the kind of America that we need to be at this time. Her policies are sort of begrudging approaches to problems that she does not see as the fundamental social problem that they are. She takes the bandaid approach to improving the world. She has no far-reaching vision for our country. She just wants to make do, kind of hobble along. That is not what we need.
We need Bernie with his appreciation for the dignity of every human being and with his challenging ideas.
Flag burning should be a felony??????? That's your Hillary.
State college education free for everyone. That's the modern version of giving land to those who want it. That's my Bernie.
You and others who are backing Hillary because they fear the Republicans need to vote according to what you think is right and not in order to avoid the Republicans.
The entire Democratic Party needs to get behind the change we need in this country. We just lost in Virgina and Kentucky. We are not offering voters the kind of government that is needed for our time.
Bernie is offering to start the revolution in our country so that we can have government suited to our present society and not something that sounded good in 1972 and 1980.
Bernie is the winning candidate for 2016.
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