In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act. Within a year, and without the aid of computers, the United States provided more than 19 million seniors with health coverage. Before the law existed, over half of the elderly in the United States did not have health insurance. Medicare, which now includes people with disabilities, celebrated its 54th birthday this week.
Kevin Drum and I were being treated at City of Hope for similar cancers at the same time. I'm confident that he-- unlike many members of Congress-- understands healthcare policy and the importance of Medicare for All.
You like Bernie's progressive agenda? Elizabeth Warren's progressive agenda? Even if America elects one of them-- or, hopefully, both of them-- to run the executive branch, without a more progressive legislative branch, much of that agenda will be stymied. As we saw Thursday, Medicare had been blocked since 1915 by a coalition of conservative Democrats and Republicans until a Democratic landslide in 1964, a landslide that made the GOP irrelevant and took power away from the Southern Democrats (the garbage members called Blue Dogs and New Dems today).
The debates have taught me that many of our politicians don't understand what Medicare is beyond a Medicare-For-Dummies synopsis they may have read once. I noticed that as the case with Tim Ryan (D-OH), no brain surgeon to begin with. The fool got into an argument with Bernie about Medicare and thought he could skate by as though he and another drunk congressman were in a fact-free zone arguing.
The Economist's new poll from YouGov could signal choppy waters ahead for the NRCC. Their "Socialism!!!!" campaign is-- of course-- falling flat. Well, wait; it's isn't totally falling flat. The fascist and neo-Nazi base and hate talk radio fanatics and fans of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson love it. But that's not moving any dials when independents and conservative Democrats just laugh it off.
The current round of presidential debates is packed with plans, programs, promises, claims and counter-claims. The question, as always, is which candidates are we to believe. The closer we get to an election, unscrupulous candidates tailor what they say to what the voters want to hear. The problem is separating the flimflam pols from the honest ones.
Passing The Torch by Nancy OhanianThe media is trying to stoke what the Washington Post called explosive faceoffs tonight and
A couple of weeks ago, Bernie enumerated a dozen or so prominent people who he would rather not get endorsements from. I don't think he really needed to worry about that. He was speaking about people who are likely already committed to either Status Quo Joe-- Pete when Biden self-destructs-- or Trump.
It is increasingly clear that the wagons have circled both in the Democratic National Committee and in the news media to shut down any possibility of a national health plan as proposed by Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) or Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
