2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders’s fiction-filled campaign
Mr. Sanderss tale starts with the bad guys: Wall Street and corporate money. The existence of large banks and lax campaign finance laws explains why working Americans are not thriving, he says, and why the progressive agenda has not advanced. Here is a reality check: Wall Street has already undergone a round of reform, significantly reducing the risks big banks pose to the financial system. The evolution and structure of the world economy, not mere corporate deck-stacking, explained many of the big economic challenges the country still faces. And even with radical campaign finance reform, many Americans and their representatives would still oppose the Sanders agenda.
Mr. Sanderss story continues with fantastical claims about how he would make the European social model work in the United States. He admits that he would have to raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for his universal, Medicare-for-all health-care plan, and he promises massive savings on health-care costs that would translate into generous benefits for ordinary people, putting them well ahead, on net. But he does not adequately explain where those massive savings would come from. Getting rid of corporate advertising and overhead would only yield so much. Savings would also have to come from slashing payments to doctors and hospitals and denying benefits that people want.
He would be a braver truth-teller if he explained how he would go about rationing health care like European countries do. His program would be more grounded in reality if he addressed the fact of chronic slow growth in Europe and explained how he would update the 20th-century model of social democracy to accomplish its goals more efficiently. Instead, he promises large benefits and few drawbacks.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-fiction-filled-campaign/2016/01/27/cd1b2866-c478-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)What "round of reform" is this FICTION WRITER talking about? Did this "round of reform" produce an environment where Wall Street was prosecuted AT ALL for the CRIMES they just committed that has put us in the same situation that we had in last century's depression?
Even Reagan would be laughing at these comments when he DID MORE to PROSECUTE the criminals of the lower scoped Savings and Loan crisis. That's why many Republicans stay Republicans when they see that this administration is filled with the likes of Holder who is either too damn corrupt or too damn inept to have done his job, and of course is back working for those he was REALLY working for even while under the government payroll to do a job that he never really did for us!
Does this idiot even know that any tax increase would be dwarfed by the amount people would SAVE when they don't have to pay health insurance any more? Either he's an idiot, or he's being told not to offend the health insurance advertisers that pay for the Post's ad revenue. Can't introduce any ideas out there that would threaten their existence of course. FAR more important than telling their readers the truth of what is going on in our society. Got to stick with the make the advertiser happy FICTION they are producing in their paid propaganda pieces.
Can't put someone in office that would reverse the corporate consolidation of the media that Bill Clinton helped put together when he signed that "great" Telecomm Bill of his administration that even John McCain had the wisdom to vote against along with better Democrats like Russ Feingold.
bigtree
(85,986 posts)"Mr. Sanders is a lot like many other politicians. Strong ideological preferences guide his thinking, except when politics does, as it has on gun control. When reality is ideologically or politically inconvenient, he and his campaign talk around it. Mr. Sanderss success so far does not show that the country is ready for a political revolution. It merely proves that many progressives like being told everything they want to hear."
...this sounds suspiciously right-wing. A highlight of the conservative argument against his progressive candidacy, perhaps. Status quo advocacy for the complacent.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)It really goes a long way to explaining the sour attitude displayed by many.
bkkyosemite
(5,792 posts)PDittie
(8,322 posts)You don't think it's about Jeff Bezos' tax bracket, do you?
(Link should work if you c&p into your address bar)
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Well, not so much of Bernie but of the masses of people he inspires.
WAPO has whored itself to the rich and all they got from it is a few dollars and gone-a-ree-ah.