Elizabeth Warren did not have a plan for this

[brooklynite]

Politico

An Elizabeth Warren event is like the candidate herself: well-organized, precise, unpretentious. The candidate, almost always clad in her campaign uniform of black sneakers, black pants, and a black camisole covered in a colorful sweater or jacket, stands before a single over-sized American flag. There’s some Fourth of July-style bunting along the walls, but the vibe is frugality rather than fireworks.

The real money is spent on organization. There are the clipboard kids who politely swarm every attendee and make it difficult to leave without serving up some personal information. Voters who are allowed to ask questions during the brief Q & A period are decided ahead of time via a lottery. Frequently the longest period of the event is spent on the picture line (they aren’t selfies), which is designed to spread the Warren message through social media. It’s as if the Warren team took the chaos and serendipity of an old-fashioned New England town hall and had McKinsey reinvent it to maximize every efficiency.

The Warren stump speech is simple, concise, and unchanging. She identifies three big problems and proposes three big plans: “corruption,” which she will tackle with an anti-lobbying package; inequality, which she will attack with a wealth tax that funds her education and child care programs; and the decline of democracy, which, among other things, she would attempt to fix by asking the Senate to relinquish the filibuster.

There is one issue that she doesn’t dwell on: Medicare for All. The enormously expensive (some $30 trillion), difficult to pay for (she’s already spent the wealth tax on other things), and politically dangerous (polls show Democratic support declining) plan that would make health care a basic right in America has been like an asteroid hurtling toward the Warren campaign. There’s still time to get out of the way but there’s also a chance it might blow up her campaign.

[Freddie]

1. I like her but I wish she'd be more flexible on this issue

There are way too many people (I was one of them) who have excellent employer coverage with very little cost to them and very little out-of-pockets. These are the middle-class people who would pay higher taxes for possible not-as-good coverage. Her version of MFA is not gonna fly for this reason.

[MrsCoffee]

3. There are way too many people without healthcare at all.

That’s the damn bottom line.

[brooklynite]

4. You know the easiest way to not give them healthcare? Lose the election

[MrsCoffee]

5. FUD.

[blm]

16. Centrists will vote for Extrem right Trump over center left

threatening to lower their overall healthcare costs.

As we’ve been told on occasion.

[ehrnst]

18. +1000. (nt)

[Freddie]

7. Americans are selfish

If it hurts their personal bottom line they won’t go for it.
A Medicare buy-in designed to eventually become true MFA is the way to go.

[pangaia]

8. I don't know what the real numbers are.. I'll bet nobody does,

but --

Nobody has excellent even employer coverage at very little cost. The employers are paying that huge premium-- but-- wait.... if they didn;t HAVE to pay that 'shouldn't' that savings go to you so you could pay it...
so SOMEBODY is always paying for it..

I'm just making an argument here... just for discussion.. but rarely does anybody state what would be saved.. sure 'taxes' ( if one calls them that) go up but also premiums, co-pays etc either drop or disappear,,

Again, I'm just generalizing....

And I have no idea what plan would work best now...

[Freddie]

12. I'm a retired benefits admin

I really did have excellent coverage at $180/month for myself & DH. This cost my employer $1800/month. Family plan was $2200. Does anyone actually think that they would see that $ in their paycheck if we went to MFA? Dream on.
It’s complicated. But to tell people we’re going to yank this away now is not the best strategy IMO. There has to be a way to do it piecemeal and present it as such.

[SLClarke]

11. Employers paying for health care

If we had Medicare for All for everyone, and also a privately paid insurance for those who want it, I reckon the employer who is paying mega-bucks for their employees health insurance would be happy to pay nothing, and maybe, just maybe, give all those employees the funds that used to be paid to the insurance company.

[SergeStorms]

15. Dream on.

When corporations get windfalls or huge tax breaks the money always seems to be spent on stock buy-backs, giving the illusion that the company is killing it in sales etc. to increase value for shareholders. The second tier is management compensation, which is already at record rates, but there's just never enough for them. IF there's anything left the rank and file employees might get a a small increase in salary, buy usually the two top tiers suck it all up. "Trickle down" has been proven to be one of the biggest hoaxes perpetrated upon humankind.

[blm]

17. Well, then requirements need to be put in place,

After all, those employers receive tax breaks on the health insurance.

[UniteFightBack]

20. +1000 nt

[MrsCoffee]

2. Yeah cuz health care as a basic right is such a fucking scary prospect.

Seems more about a hard push right than push to the middle.

Keep the FUD, Warren with be fine.

[FM123]

9. Yep. Warren will be fine.

BTW I admit I had to look up FUD, lol, but it makes perfect sense.


FUD is an acronym for fear, uncertainty and doubt. It is a marketing term that is often used to cast a shadow over a competitor's product when your own is unable to compete.

[TidalWave46]

10. I don't like the message that what you are saying....

Can’t even be our starting point. It has to be. I think a lot of us struggle a bit with the name M4A and one of the people acting as if it’s all his brilliant idea. I think there is also some resistance as things are being said in its promotion that are simply untrue, mainly because of the cult of personality. It took me a while but I’m just trying to get over that crap.

Our starting point has to be healthcare as a right. Full coverage. Single payer leading to the direction of breaking the health insurance as a part of compensation and the profit aspect.

[Bettie]

14. Thank you!

It is all so much FUD.

The fact that the PTB are so afraid of Warren makes me like her more.

The Overton window has been shoved so far rightward that anything that is beneficial for (non wealthy) humans is "wacky left wing nonsense" these days.

[TidalWave46]

6. Warren is at the top of my list.

I fully understand that many of her plans are pie in the sky bullshit in today’s environment. I’m all not on board with many of her plans.

Warrens plans would sink this country overnight if they were implemented the day she took office. Literally. But we all know they won’t be implemented overnight, or by the end of her second term.

Two things I really like about her. 1) She is a coalition builder. She isn’t a lone wolf out there yelling at walls. No matter what we must put forward a coalition builder. 2) I believe her plans are a great starting point for negotiations in Congress. If we use her vision as a starting point we will end up with some great legislation.

She has a vision and has been bold enough to put that vision forward in the form of plans. I’m a huge fan of their direction.

We need to accept that no matter who we put forward the republicans are going to frame us as wanting to bankrupt the country. That we are just a bunch of socialists. We cannot fear a word of that or make our decision based off of it.

The tax scam was/is extreme and not everyone is figuring out how destructive it is. It’s truly destroying our country. Everyone will soon realize it as one of its more onerous aspects is catching up to us. That is the massive repatriation of funds that is happening. This repatriation of funds has artificially inflated the value of large corporations in a major way. People in penthouses will suffer the least over the tax scam. Main Street will figure it out soon.

That’s extreme. That is complete irresponsibility. Of course I didn’t even delve into the income inequality aspect, the increased labor aspect bringing down our quality of life, and the further pitting of American against American. All of these things will be exacerbated as we slide into a recession. The pain of the tax scam will soon be felt in a major way.

Warren has a path forward and I find nothing extreme about starting negotiation using the vision she is outlining.

[abqtommy]

13. I guess the writers at Polito-crumb don't do the reading I do since I've seen lots of

information about Medicare For All, including some from Elizabeth Warren. Medicare For All must be
an effective policy proposal since it's sure getting a lot of push-back from REICH Wingers, the
insurance carriers and medical corporatists.

[BlueMTexpat]

19. She does now. eom