And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[71 dB]

Some very recent polling.

Saturday, January 25
Race/Topic   (Click to Sort)   Poll   Results   Spread
Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus   NY Times/Siena   Biden 17, Sanders 25, Buttigieg 18, Warren 15, Klobuchar 8, Yang 3, Booker, Steyer 3, Gabbard 1, Bloomberg 1   Sanders +7

Missouri Democratic Primary   Missouri Scout   Biden 39, Bloomberg 14, Warren 9, Klobuchar 8, Sanders 7, Buttigieg 6, Yang 2, Steyer 1   Biden +25

Iowa: Trump vs. Biden   NY Times/Siena   Trump 46, Biden 44   Trump +2
Iowa: Trump vs. Sanders   NY Times/Siena   Trump 48, Sanders 42   Trump +6
Iowa: Trump vs. Warren   NY Times/Siena   Trump 47, Warren 42   Trump +5
Iowa: Trump vs. Buttigieg   NY Times/Siena   Trump 45, Buttigieg 44   Trump +1
Iowa: Trump vs. Bloomberg   NY Times/Siena   Trump 47, Bloomberg 39   Trump +8

Iowa is the sort of state Democrats need to win.  Yet Trump leads them...but the gap is narrowest against the moderates.
And poor Missouri: Bernie can't even get out of single digits there.

Why did you put Biden first in the Iowa list when he is third in the poll? Or it that the way your source tries to hide the fact Bernie is the first in that poll? The Missouri numbers are miserable for Bernie, he is far from the 15 % threshold, but as I have said a million times, winning the Democratic nomination will be hard for Bernie. I have never said it's easy. Beating Trump in the general election is easy for Bernie. Totally different thing. In Iowa the gap is narrowest against the moderates, but in the Rust Belt it is narrowest against Bernie. You can't win everywhere, but you can win in the right places...

[71 dB]

Of course they might want MfA. MfA will benefit them, it will benefit Big Pharma, it will benefit the big hospital corporations, etc. It will also benefit the 1% by increasing their hold on government. It won't benefit most individual Americans.

They want MfA, because they see/know the current system doesn't work as it should. They know the problems and how to fix them. MfA will not benefit Big Pharma. If it did, Big Pharma would lobby for it. That would mean Nancy Pelosi would be advocating MfA like crazy. Is she? I didn't think so. Instead Big Pharma bribes politicians to be against MfA. If MfA benefitted the top 1% you'd see people like Ben Shapiro advocate for it, but you don't see it, do you? Instead you see Ben Shapiro say MfA would make his wife a slave. That's because the top 1 % won't benefit from MfA. They pay Ben Shapiro big money to fearmonger it. So, think about if what you say makes any sense at all.

MfA would definitely benefit most Americans. No premiums, co-pays, deductible etc. No employer-tied isurance to reduce your choices in life and compromises your negotiation power against your employer. No networks to limit the choice of Doctors. No fear of care denied because of pre-existing conditions or other silly reasons. No fear of medical bankruptcy. No need for go fund me. Better coverage than your bronze/silver plan. No need to renew your insurance every year. Everyone is covered. The price: Your taxes go up a little bit, but less than what you save otherwise. In fact few changes can benefit most people as much as going from for profit healthcare to single payer healthcare.

You seem not to understand the central flaw of all ideas that call for increased governmental action or bigger government programs.

Government can be corrupt meaning government programs work badly, but private sector is driven by greed which also can lead to poor results when incentives are wrong. Some things work better when done by private sector, other things work better when done by public sector. That's why 100 % capitalism or 100 % socialism are not the best models. The best model is to have an optimally mixed economy. Bernie Sanders isn't talking about making all coffee shops public services run by the goverment because thay wouldn't make any sense. We know empirically that capitalism works well when it's about coffee shops. We also know healthcare based on private insurer doesn't work well and there is a much better option, single payer goverment run healtcare insurance model which does give better results. That's why Bernie Sanders advocates Medicare for All.

Anything that makes more government involvement makes more corruption inevitable because the financial stakes involved in government decisions are greater.  The connections among corporations and politicians and regulators grow because the corporations have more reason to influence government.  If you want less corruption, you have to make government decisions less important, not more.

You change corporate greed to governmental corruption. When it's healthcare this change means improvements for most people because the incentives of for profit healthcare are pretty insane (letting people die = more profit). When it's coffee shops, the incentives of private business owners are reasonable (serve good coffee and your customers come back).

[71 dB]

You link to an article that openly shills for Bernie, and yet can't help reporting the fact that Bernie is less electable.

To my eyes the message of that article is Bernie is more electable, but whatever. Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall... 

[71 dB]

Free healthcare is a nice idea until you start looking at how it will actually affect the United States' current medical system. Also the idea of having to pay higher taxes then we already pay will certainly be a difficult pill to swallow for middle class America.

Free healthcare doesn't exist. Only different ways to pay for it. The current US system is paid for in a very ineffective way because of insane incentives resulting costs that are double the rates in other developped countries despite of mediocre outcomes and still millions of Americans have no insurance or are underinsured. In comparison in other countries everyone is insured. In US thousands of families are driven to bankruptcy because of medical bills, something that simply doesn't happen in other countries and Americans pay by far the highest prices for drugs, for example 10 times more than Canadians for insulin and Canada has the second most expensive drug prises in the World. If the US healthcare system isn't a completely failure I don't know what is.

Private healthcare insurance is a private tax. Medicare for All removes it, lowering people's taxes A LOT. Public taxes will raise, but for most not even close as much as getting rid of premiums, co-pays and deductibles will save. The richest people will pay more under Medicare for All. Most people will pay less. The only reason why this is difficult pill to swallow for middle class America is corporate fearmongering in the media defending the system rigged for the top 1 %.

[Karl Henning]

Bernie Sanders couldn't get elected dog catcher, why would his ego allow him to believe otherwise?

To a degree, I think he's intoxicated with celebrity, at this point. There are many stateside who, like Poju, laud him as a kind of messiah. As with Trump, that's got to mess up a chap's mind.

[Karl Henning]

Some very recent polling.

Saturday, January 25
Race/Topic   (Click to Sort)   Poll   Results   Spread
Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus   NY Times/Siena   Biden 17, Sanders 25, Buttigieg 18, Warren 15, Klobuchar 8, Yang 3, Booker, Steyer 3, Gabbard 1, Bloomberg 1   Sanders +7

Missouri Democratic Primary   Missouri Scout   Biden 39, Bloomberg 14, Warren 9, Klobuchar 8, Sanders 7, Buttigieg 6, Yang 2, Steyer 1   Biden +25

Iowa: Trump vs. Biden   NY Times/Siena   Trump 46, Biden 44   Trump +2
Iowa: Trump vs. Sanders   NY Times/Siena   Trump 48, Sanders 42   Trump +6
Iowa: Trump vs. Warren   NY Times/Siena   Trump 47, Warren 42   Trump +5
Iowa: Trump vs. Buttigieg   NY Times/Siena   Trump 45, Buttigieg 44   Trump +1
Iowa: Trump vs. Bloomberg   NY Times/Siena   Trump 47, Bloomberg 39   Trump +8

Iowa is the sort of state Democrats need to win.  Yet Trump leads them...but the gap is narrowest against the moderates.
And poor Missouri: Bernie can't even get out of single digits there.

I guess it's still the Show-Me State.

[71 dB]

There are many stateside who, like Poju, laud him as a kind of messiah.

Calling Bernie a kind of messiah is silly. He is one of the few politicians not corrupt and therefor free to advocate policies that benefit regular people instead of the top 1 %.

[Karl Henning]

Calling Bernie a kind of messiah is silly. He is one of the few politicians not corrupt and therefor free to advocate policies that benefit regular people instead of the top 1 %.

You mistake. I'm not calling him any messiah, I'm indicating the degree of worship his fervent admirers accord him.

You yourself ascribe to him miraculous abilities to right all the wrongs of U.S. Healthcare.

[71 dB]

You mistake. I'm not calling him any messiah, I'm indicating the degree of worship his fervent admirers accord him.

You yourself ascribe to him miraculous abilities to right all the wrongs of U.S. Healthcare.

Well he is in his own class in this race so yeah, his supporters do admire him a lot.

I don't know if he can "right all the wrongs of U.S. Healthcare", but at least he wants to do that. I believe as the president he could change the course of the country in a positive way. In a direction where there is less corruption/oligarchy, more social democratic ideas, less unnecessory wars etc.

[SimonNZ]

...by saying "make it so".

[JBS]

Free healthcare doesn't exist. Only different ways to pay for it. The current US system is paid for in a very ineffective way because of insane incentives resulting costs that are double the rates in other developped countries despite of mediocre outcomes and still millions of Americans have no insurance or are underinsured. In comparison in other countries everyone is insured. In US thousands of families are driven to bankruptcy because of medical bills, something that simply doesn't happen in other countries and Americans pay by far the highest prices for drugs, for example 10 times more than Canadians for insulin and Canada has the second most expensive drug prises in the World. If the US healthcare system isn't a completely failure I don't know what is.

Private healthcare insurance is a private tax. Medicare for All removes it, lowering people's taxes A LOT. Public taxes will raise, but for most not even close as much as getting rid of premiums, co-pays and deductibles will save. The richest people will pay more under Medicare for All. Most people will pay less. The only reason why this is difficult pill to swallow for middle class America is corporate fearmongering in the media defending the system rigged for the top 1 %.

Your understanding of US health care is as distorted as your understanding of US politics.  Until you get it into your head that the Young Turks are just as unreliable and just as prone to play loose with the facts as Breitbart, and their depiction of problems here is driven by the desire to impose their agenda on everyone else, you'll never understand our problems.

The bad outcomes and high costs in US health care are mostly linked to publicly funded health care. Medicare for All therefore means making those problems worse. Taxing only the rich won't raise enough money to pay for MfA, so it will be necessary to tax everyone, and to limit coverage as much as possible. If MfA will ever become reality, it won't be anything like Bernie's plan. If Obama, with a good deal more political goodwill on his side than Bernie can ever hope for, could barely get a much less ambitious plan through, what chance would Bernie have.  The reality will simply be pushing everyone into an underfunded, bureaucratized system rife with opportunities for fraud and corruption, that doesn't get good results even now.
MfA would, in short, make our health care problems worse.  If Bernie and Kyle really wanted to fix health care,  they would not be touting MfA.

[71 dB]

Your understanding of US health care is as distorted as your understanding of US politics.  Until you get it into your head that the Young Turks are just as unreliable and just as prone to play loose with the facts as Breitbart, and their depiction of problems here is driven by the desire to impose their agenda on everyone else, you'll never understand our problems.

The bad outcomes and high costs in US health care are mostly linked to publicly funded health care. Medicare for All therefore means making those problems worse. Taxing only the rich won't raise enough money to pay for MfA, so it will be necessary to tax everyone, and to limit coverage as much as possible. If MfA will ever become reality, it won't be anything like Bernie's plan. If Obama, with a good deal more political goodwill on his side than Bernie can ever hope for, could barely get a much less ambitious plan through, what chance would Bernie have.  The reality will simply be pushing everyone into an underfunded, bureaucratized system rife with opportunities for fraud and corruption, that doesn't get good results even now.
MfA would, in short, make our health care problems worse.  If Bernie and Kyle really wanted to fix health care,  they would not be touting MfA.

So WHY are Bernie and Kyle (and MILLIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE) touting MfA? Why Why Why??

Your CLAIMS don't make sense!!! Don't you see it???

all other countries have managed to implement single payer healthcare. The US has gone to the Moon and can't provide healthcare to all it's citizens!!!! Crazy!! Corporate candidates keep saying "US is the greatest country and we can do anything" Except if it helps regulat people!! No can do. Medicare for all? Impossible! Tuition free education? Impossible!! (Slovenia has tuition free edication!)

Open your eyes man and stop saying I don't understand US society!!! You are the one completely out ot touch!! Completely brainwashed!!!

[Karl Henning]

So WHY are Bernie and Kyle (and MILLIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE) touting MfA? Why Why Why? ?

Why does an evangelist tout his "gospel"?


The idea that just because millions tout an idea, it cannot be wrong, is rubbish.


Why can't you see it? Why Why Why?

[71 dB]

Why does an evangelist tout his "gospel"?


The idea that just because millions tout an idea, it cannot be wrong, is rubbish.


Why can't you see it? Why Why Why?

What if the gospel works in all other countries? Maybe you should listen in that case??

[Karl Henning]

What if the gospel works in all other countries? Maybe you should listen in that case??

Maybe you should listen to why the solution is not so easy in the case of the U.S?

[71 dB]

Maybe you should listen to why the solution is not so easy in the case of the U.S?

The reason why it's not easy in the US is corruption, oligarchy. That's why you need systemic change. Money out of politics and so on.

[SimonNZ]

all other countries have managed to implement single payer healthcare.

You wouldn't have the first part of the first inkling of how healthcare varies from country to country around the world.

Please stop claiming knowledge you don't have in even the smallest amount.

[71 dB]

You wouldn't have the first part of the first inkling of how healthcare varies from country to country around the world.

Please stop claiming knowledge you don't have in even the smallest amount.

Who does know? You?

[JBS]

The reason why it's not easy in the US is corruption, oligarchy. That's why you need systemic change. Money out of politics and so on.

Progressive programs increase oligarchy and corruption. The more government interfaces with any activity, the more opportunity for corruption, and the greater the motivation for corruption.  They attract money into politics.

That ought to be obvious enough that I shouldn't need to explain it to you.

[JBS]

Who does know? You?

Simon at least knows about New Zealand's system,  which is not completely funded by the government
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_New_Zealand