I'm tired of ideas

[Recursion]

Here's my problem with the entire array of Democratic Presidential candidates. We don't need "ideas".

I'm a fan of ideas. I like coming up with clever and efficient ways to meet social needs. But we don't actually need them. We're rich enough that we could simply apply a 15% VAT and use that to pay for Medicaid for the entire population as well as Section 8 for about 75% of renters as well as SNAP for the entire population.

(Don't bother telling me why that's a suboptimal idea: I agree, there are better ways to do all these things. That's not my point.)

The electorate is not breathlessly waiting on some liberal to finally come up with the right idea to make caring for our neighbors popular. The electorate, at least a vocal plurality of it, just actively hates the thought of their neighbors having financial and medical security.

As of now I like Warren, I intend to vote for her, and I think she has great ideas, but I also think those great ideas don't really matter since she won't be able to enact any of them.

Right now the line "why should a burger flipper make $15 / hour?" gets a standing ovation in an electorally-important subset of the country. Until *that* stops being true all the structures we put in place won't mean a damn thing.

[abqtommy]

1. If we think of ideas as consisting of plans and strategies then I'm all for them. Remember when

impeachment was just a word but now it's an established action that grows more vital by the day? I
remember learning about "The Seven Ps" and now might be a good time to present them in hopes that
it will help dull the sharp edge of your cynicism. "The Seven Ps" refers to seven words, and they are:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Below is a link to information about this and similar sayings.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=source+of+the+saying+proper+prior+planning+prevents+piss-poor+performance+&t=ffnt&ia=web

[redqueen]

2. Good ideas are great, but plans to get them enacted are critical

And that is why I love the idea of the Freedom Dividend.

No, many Americans don't want the the government to force businesses to pay every employee $15 per hour (even though that doesn't even increase the min wage enough so that it matches up with inflation).

UBI gets around that. It is a $6/hr increase for everyone. If everyone gets it, it becomes a LOT easier to get support for it. It helps the homeless, it helps people on disability, it helps full-time caregivers, it helps retirees - every citizen. Literally.

It has to happen eventually. Would be great if we could leverage this needed reform as part of the effort to get Trump out of office.

[Newest Reality]

3. What would satisfy me for now is intent...

The intent to repair was has been broken and fix what needs fixing. There are many now and some things have been getting worse due to neglect and deflection. Cleaning up after the Trump Debacle is going to be a lot of work and a big priority on so many fronts.

The determination to solve the most pressing problems that have the most negative impacts on non-wealthy Americans by prioritizing them and expediting the means to do so while providing proper funding for a change. There are some general, societal problems that are foundational, obvious, growing and that have impacts and ramifications for everyone, not just a few.

The urge and will to move forward not because we want to, but because we have no other choice in an exceedingly fast-paced, digital and automated world. To delay progress and adaptations now is not about the old partisan politics anymore in the sense of being conservative vs. liberal or progressive. That's a luxury now. The future is not going to wait for us to respond to change anymore and to avoid, ignore and resist it is going to lead to dystopian solutions and a dismal reality in many ways for millions of people if we don't start to get our ship moving in the right direction for the sake of all.

I could go on, but I think that is generic enough to express the sense of what a new Administration needs to do, regardless of the candidate, wedge issues and particulars. We need a more expansive and inclusive vision that gets the ball rolling and deals dynamically in real time with the cause and effect aspects of the changes.

[LiberalLovinLug]

4. I don't think any curious engaged human should be tired of ideas.

But I get what you are saying.
I think the problem is more about most of the public doesn't know the many ideas that have been presented as bills to be debated on in the Senate passed by Democrats in the House. I think there are over 200 sitting there. Many bi-partisan. Minimum wage increase ideas, basic background checks for gun purchases, etc.. The problem is that Republicans can keep up their 'grim reaper' tactic of refusing to even debate anything for the House, and just keep throwing out their talking point of "the do-nothing Democrats", and people notice how no new bills making their lives easier are being passed, and so Mitch can foment that false narrative.

I'm tired of ideas.....not being publicized enough. And how Moscow Mitch is just sitting on them.

[oldsoftie]

5. Welcome to the real world! But be ready to hear everyone tell you why a VAT is TERRIBLE.

Even though almost every country who has what we want uses it as part of the solution

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. I look at it this way. We don't need new ideas to fix

ALL the problems in this country. What is needed is the WILL to implement the existing great ideas from all around the globe. EVERY problem we have is already being conquered by some country in the world. Just borrow those and make them our own. The biggest problem America has is that it is more profitable to a small number or people for our problems to be maintained than for them to be fixed.

[Blue_true]

7. We are unlike all developed nations that implemented socialized healthcare,

except for Canada.

The USA has a very wide range of wealth and healthcare needs. European nations were far more monolithic in wealth, racial makeup and health conditions of their populace when they implemented public healthcare, the exception was Great Britain, but it implemented it's system when it was recovering from a devastating world war. Britain WAS racially monolithic and also had a smaller range of health conditions among it's populace. MFA would be a massive stretch for us, but extension of the ACA with a public option won't be - there is data available from the ACA that allows us to see what needs to be tweaked.

We should look to what Canada did, it is more like us in wealth distribution, racial makeup and health conditions among it's populace. Canada implemented it's system piecemeal until it got to what exists today a while ago.

[Recursion]

8. With the ACA we have, structurally, Switzerland's system

Structurally there's not an important difference between the two.

Politically there is a huge difference: the states are actively sabotaging the ACA, but the cantons are not sabotaging the swiss system.

[Blue_true]

9. The way that Canada dealt with sabotage was to let provinces that wanted to stay out stay out.

After a few years, the out provinces saw how bad things were for them and came in from the cold.

We should allow states like Texas, Alabama, Missippippi, My Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, other states stay out of the ACA and an enhanced ACA if they want to. Then we should adjust revenue sharing to where states that pay more of the nation's taxes get to keep their money instead of sending it to states that don't want the ACA or other progress. It won't take long for the out states to see the light.

Essentially we need to do like in the Godfather movie. If those states want to be assholes, we leave a severed horse's head in their beds, and we imply what happens next.

[Recursion]

10. I think that would have been better, to allow them a full opt-out

Though, I grew up in Mississippi, and I hate to think of how those years it took them to figure it out would be.

[Blue_true]

11. My guess is voter revolt would have caused politicians to figure it out fast.

I even favor going farther. If states want their tax money to go only to the military, then so be it, they just don't get any federal funds to fund anything else. They will wake up fast.

[MineralMan]

12. You make some excellent points, I think.

Here's another one:

Voters do not believe that Medicare for All is possible. They are simply not convinced that any such thing is going to happen.

I agree with them. I don't believe that any Congress that can be elected in our 50 states will enact anything like Medicare for All. I think that's a non-starter from Day One. In fact, I doubt you could get anywhere near a majority of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to agree on anything that even sounds like Medicare for All.

It's unfortunate that even a Public Option in the ACA couldn't get passed. That was clear, which was why it was never presented as part of the ACA when actual voting would take place. If a Public Option couldn't pass, what chance does Medicare for All have?

So, as much as I like Elizabeth Warren, and that's a lot, her insistence on M4A is going to keep her from getting the Democratic nomination next year, I believe. No matter how it gets explained and no matter how many times she says it won't mean more taxes for the middle class, those claims will simply not be believed by enough voters to make her the nominee. Her focus on it is a huge mistake in the 2020 primary race.

There's a core group of primary voters who feel as she does, but there's a larger group of Democrats who are thinking, "No way that happens in the next presidential term." A lot of those voters are in the "undecided" category in current polling. Early next year, they're going to decide. When they do, we'll know who the nominee will be. When, exactly? March 4, 2020. Watch the delegate count numbers that day. Then, you'll know.

[melman]

13. "the line "why should a burger flipper make $15 / hour?" gets a standing ovation"

It does? Let's see some evidence of this.