How the Democrats could win every election for the next 30 years.

[Mich Otter]

I believe the Democrats could win the majority in every election for a long time if they;

1- Present a plan to provide health care for every American. We will have to make cuts in our military budget, (and close most of our overseas bases), to be able to afford a national health care plan.
There will be other problems at startup such as; not enough trained medical personnel, not enough facilities, dealing with life long illnesses, etc. It won't be easy or cheap but, it needs to happen.

and,
2- Become firmly committed to policing themselves so the American people don't feel the need to vote Republican to root out corruption in government.

There are plenty of other important issues to be dealt with but, I think these two need to be at the top of the list.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I think you may have something there

especially about policing ourselves. We have to stop playing by the rule that we support whomever just because they have a D after their name. If someone is guilty of corruption, they should be tried and punished.

[Sooner75]

22. nice idea, but I think a reality check is in order....

The other industrialized nations see that health care is available to THEIR citizens. I believe it'll have to happen here, too. Of course, no other rich country has to do on the scale that we have to. Those other countries have seen lots of problems with their systems. It's an enormous entitlement program.

Also, recall that the Clintons set out to tackle health care in the early part of the first Clinton term. The health care powers-that-be rose up with their Republican allies and spiked the whole deal handing the Clintons their first setback. You can expect that the AMA, Big Pharma, etc. will rush back to the barricades if we try to upset their apple cart.

I think that the health care issue is a very big one out on the horizon. I also think it can be a HUGE winner for the Democratic Party if we can manage it well. Just be clear that before that complex battle is won there's going to be a titanic battle.

[Mich Otter]

30. A friend of mine is helping push for Universal Health Care and she says,

if you think the energy companies are big and powerful, the health care industry in this country is about ten times more powerful. I trust her word and expect it will be a monumental task to have Universal Health Care.

[Sooner75]

31. right on

One of the first hurdles in this one is to get a large enough number of people to recognize the POWER of the health care special interests.

Another one is to get 'em to recognize the real human cost when people don't have access to health care. That one is interesting because there are SO MANY of us without health insurance (I am one of those myself!). You'd think that we'd all have connected the dots by now.

[Vincardog]

2. Simply remove the age requirement from Medicare Problem solved

[On the Road]

4. That's an Interesting Way to Get Unviersal Health Care

The taxes that support the program would have to be raised. And arrangements would have to be made for those who don't qualify for Medicare for reasons other than age.

[leftstreet]

7. Ted Kennedy's plan is Medicare For All

It's not perfect, but at least he's talking about an actual plan!

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-37.htm

The answer is Medicare, whose 40th birthday we will celebrate in July. I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen - from birth to the end of life.

It's no secret that America is still dearly in love with Medicare. Administrative costs are low. Patients' satisfaction is high. Unlike with many private insurers, they can still choose their doctor and their hospital.

For those who prefer private insurance, we will offer comparable coverage under the same range of private insurance plans already available to Congress. I can think of nothing more cynical or hypocritical than a Member of Congress who gives a speech denouncing health care for all, then goes to his doctor for a visit paid for by the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan.

I call this approach Medicare for All, because it will free all Americans from the fear of crippling medical expenses and enable them to seek the best possible care when illness strikes.

The battle to achieve Medicare for All will not be easy. Powerful interests will strongly oppose it, because they profit immensely from the status quo. Right wing forces will unleash false attack ads ranting against socialized medicine and government-run health care.

But those attacks are a generation out of date - retreads of the failed campaign that delayed Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, we are immunized against such attacks by the obvious success of Medicare. It is long past time to extend that success to all.

[LWolf]

34. To be honest,

I can't listen to Teddy speak without :puke: these days.

As a teacher, I take his support of NCLB very personally, and he's lost his capital with me. It's real nice, if you can get beyond his NCLB pollution, that he is proposing, in 2005, "Medicare for all." Of course, one of our '04 nominees had "Enhanced medicare for all," on his agenda for a long time. He's introduced it in the house, HR 676.

Democratic voters had this choice, and didn't make it then.

Does that mean that Teddy is endorsing this, and proposing a senate version, or just taking it as his own sudden inspiration? Hopefully, he won't do to universal health care what he's done to education with his support of NCLB.

I think universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care is an issue that the Democrats need to address NOW. It would be nice if they might note that some exceptional Democrats have already prepared the way, and support what is already on the table.

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

[Mich Otter]

8. 'remove the age requirement from Medicare'

That is exactly the plan John Conyers has presented to Congress. They would simply have to out the words "over age 65" from Medicare.

[sandnsea]

9. Doctors are refusing Medicare patients

There was just an article posted on it yesterday. Reimbursements are so low that doctors say that can't afford to see them anymore. We would end up with the same system we've got now, unions bargaining for private health insurance and non-union workers choosing to buy it as well, and the poor left with nothing at all. Have to do more than Medicare for all, seems to me.

[Mich Otter]

10. Yep, there is more.

There would also have to a law that eliminates private insurance and private hospitals. Otherwise Medicare would become worthless.

[catmother]

13. right. if you eliminate the insurance companies the doctors would

have to take medicare.

[sandnsea]

16. Will never happen

Besides insurance companies AND agents all having shit fits, most people fail to grasp that European countries have BOTH public and privately insured health care. It's what makes their systems work so well, particularly France. Buy into subsidized federal plans, that's the solution but without the left giving up the fantasy of single payer only, it'll never happen. And, btw, that is actually what states are starting to implement. Here in Oregon, they were surprised at how well it's being received.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Another problem with Medicare--the regulations are so complicated

that it's easy to violate them without knowing it. (That's from my brother the doctor. He says that the administrative rules literally take up volumes and that he's had reimbursements denied because he's failed to observe one of them.)

But in principle, if we could remove the unnecessary regulations from Medicare and extend it to all ages, that would provide every American with a minimum safety net.

[eridani]

32. Canadians do global budgeting

That's controlling costs the way you would control movements of a herd of cattle, that is, if you were intelligent. You'd put a fence around them and allow them free movement inside of it. Any providers who want to cheat will have to take money from the pockets of their colleagues, who will tend to notice.

Medicare unfortunately imitates the private insurance method of oversight--hire a whole bunch of cowboys with reins to each invididual cow.

[catmother]

12. medicare is not free. it's up to $88.20 a month and there are

deductibles. some people cannot afford that.

[sandnsea]

17. Not to mention

Worker and employer contributions which would have to at least double. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but there's no such thing as FREE health care and I'd like to thunk people in the head when they say that.

[catmother]

18. or they would have to raise our taxes which i wouldn't mind

inasmuch as my premiums keeping going up along with deductibles and co-payments. i'm not sure how it works in canada and all the other civilized countries.

[sandnsea]

19. contributions=taxes

I have no idea why I used the word contributions to describe the Medicare tax, but that's what I meant.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. My insurance premiums have gone up much faster than my taxes

This past year, I hit a milestone birthday, and my monthly premiums went up $80, even though I have never even met my deductible since signing on with this company.

[Mich Otter]

20. OK, who said free? (I sure hope I didn't.).

It will be massively expensive to cover everyone. That is why I believe there will have to be major cuts in the military budget to begin with. We cannot continue to be the world's powerful, military bully and think of taking care of our people.
Too bad the Republicans spent all that deficit money for nothing when we should have gotten health care out of the deal.
There are no easy, or cheap, ways to cover everyone. The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be.

[eridani]

33. Yes, but we don't need to cut anything else.

We are already spending massive amounts on health care.

We are already paying for universal health care; we just aren't getting it. --Dennis Kucinich

[Hippo_Tron]

21. Also, repeal the Medicare Perscription Drug Act of 2003

[RagingInMiami]

3. Cut corporate tax breaks in order to help fund the healthcare plan

Which saves the corporations money because they won't have to pay for their employees healthcare plan.

[AZBlue]

5. And no more of this off-shore corporate tax break crap.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Ideas are not enough. We have to restore the mechanism of our...

...sovereignty: our right to vote.

With transparent elections, not just Democrats but LEFTIST Democrats, and other representatives of the MAJORITY, would win all elections from now to the end of the century. They would probably become as corrupt as the Republicans, but, hey, it would be great for a while. Real democracy. Imagine.

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

They are the problem.

[dusmcj]

11. allow the Bush administration to continue its current policies unimpeded ?

these buffoons have the potential to exile the Republican Party from meaningful power for the next 4 or 5 decades. I think letting them implode (and helping them along where possible) is a valid strategy option.

[cascadiance]

14. Put in place "clean elections" public financing...

That would hopefully start taking out the "free speech" bribery that is going on to allow corporate America to take over our government for so long. The question is how to get this chicken in place before the eggs...

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. getting the message across

I suppose the way the whole campaign mechanism has become dependent on the generosity of lobbyist from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and others has made rational thinking extremely difficult for the candidate who is willing to think out of the box and voice openly the politics of reason. Hopefully the ability to raise money online and the revival of grassroots democracy can change that.

I know I've said this before..but I recommend everyone listen to how a Congressman and Senatorial candidate who does that and wins even rural conservative counties by landslide after landslide. When Bernie Sanders is interviewed FOX News (for some odd reason they have him more than all the other networks put together) they get swamped with phone calls and E-mails from conservative viewers who love his message. IT'S HIS MESSAGE THAT SELLS. WITH HIS MESSAGE DEMOCRATS CAN CONTROL THE DEBATE FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA. I'm not talking about him personally or his candidacy. I'M TALKING ABOUT HIS MESSAGE.

link to Bernie's audio/visual files:

http://bernie.org/?cat=4

________________________


Borrowed from:
LynnTheDem


139. a super-majority of Americans are liberal in all but name

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051107/alterman


Public opinion polls show that the majority of Americans embrace liberal rather than conservative positions...
http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2002-04-16-liberal.shtml


The vast majority of Americans are looking for more social support, not less...
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/borosage-r.html

http://people.umass.edu/mmorgan/commstudy.html

[opihimoimoi]

23. I like the policing part...no more Zells.....

[Maine-ah]

24. one of the things that we could be doing is hammering

bush and the republicans on things that people don't think that they're doing correctly. In other words, most of the public (in polls) agree with his stance on terror. How ever, the things they don't agree with him on is the economy, health care, borders, gas prices, Iraq ect... If we keep nailing them on these particular topics we'll get somewhere. JMHO.

[donsu]

27. it might happen if we use paper and pen for voting and not machines

otherwise, probably not.

[kwolf68]

28. Advance Moral Values

It's moral to protect the weakest among us

It's moral to cure the sick

It's moral to protect "Gods creation" the environment

It's moral to wage peage and eradicate war

Moral Values people...Not for the Republican party anymore. Their morals are about protecting zygotes and advancing theocracy. Our morals are about making the world a more just, humae place. Democrats don't always make the right move...lord knows we've botched a few, but at the end of the day we are fighting the good fight.

If nothing else keeps us invigerated (sp) it should be the presence of these challous hypocritic republicans. They alone should be our inspiration if nothing else can do it.

[oneoftheboys]

29. Not to knock your ideas (they are good ones), but...

if you had the "30 year plan," you would be a rich man!

Seriously, political consultants have been trying to solve this one for hundreds of years. And they are no closer today than they were in the beginning.

[No Exit]

35. You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about the health care issue!

It is number one for a LOT of people, and they are not all "old" people--not by a long shot!

[Apollo11]

36. How to win a rigged election??

I strongly agree with Peace Patriot and Calipendence.

With clean elections and accurate vote-counting, Al Gore would now be in his second term as President.

The other issue we need to address is right-wing control of the corporate media.

But I also agree that the Democrats should stand for Universal Health Care.

We have to continuously strive to make it obvious to people why Democrats are better than Republicans, and how they personally would benefit from having more Democrats in government.

Healthcare for all is an obvious one. Hillary messed it up last time around. They should have put Al Gore in charge of that (like he wanted).

In Gore We Trust
www.algore-08.com
http://algore2008.net /
:)