Harry Reid Swipes at Progressives in 2020 Field: 'Of Course' Medicare for All, Decriminalizing

[highplainsdem]

Immigration Are Bad Ideas


From Mediaite:


https://www.mediaite.com/politics/harry-reid-swipes-at-progressives-in-2020-field-of-course-medicare-for-all-decriminalizing-immigration-are-bad-ideas/

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has warned that it’s a politically bad idea if the 2020 Democratic field pushes “Medicare for all” and a platform to decriminalize undocumented immigration.

In an interview with VICE News, Reid was pessimistic when asked if Medicare for all would be a hard sell to voters in the 2020 general election. Instead, Reid thinks the better option would be for Democrats to find ways to improve and expand the Affordable Care Act.

“Of course it would be. How are you going to get it passed?” Reid answered. “We should focus on improving Obamacare. We can do that — without bringing something that would be much harder to sell.”

When the conversation moved to immigration, Reid said an open-door policy will “of course” hurt Democrats, and that people want to see a fair immigration system instead.

“There are so many more important things to do,” said Reid. “Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list. It should be way, way down at the bottom of the list.”

-snip-

[comradebillyboy]

1. I miss Harry Reid. I wish Schumer had a fraction

of Reid's backbone.

[FloridaBlues]

15. Yes I miss him too. Glad he is doing well .

[FoxNewsSucks]

18. I wish someone would start using

all that powder that "Give 'Em Hell" Harry kept dry all these years.

Moscow Mitch blocked everything when Harry Reid was Majority Leader. And now, seemingly can't be stopped after becoming Majority leader.

[Kahuna7]

22. Here here. I miss him too. I knew Schumer would be a disappointment. nt

[highplainsdem]

30. I miss him, too.

[Cha]

2. I like Biden's Plan.. building

on ACA with a Public option.. not tearing it down. And, letting people have private insurance if they want to.

Thank you for Harry Reid's perspective, highplains

[OKNancy]

3. Every poll I've seen says Medicare4All is a loser

I haven't seen a poll about wiping out student debt, but just from talks with my Democratic friends, everyone of them are against that. The main argument is that it would cause a lot of resentment from people who paid off their loans.

[Gothmog]

11. Medicare for all polls badly

Link to tweet

THE MAIN TAKEAWAYS are that socialism, broadly speaking, is unpopular, but Republicans have work to do if they want to tarnish some key Democratic proposals. Once voters hear about the agenda as framed by Republicans, 61% say it is socialist. Calling Democrats’ policies “socialist” causes a 10-point drop in their popularity.

-- FOR EXAMPLE: Take ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL.’ When asked about supporting Medicare for All, and hearing it described as “guaranteed health care coverage regardless of … income, and every American’s health insurance would come from a single government-run plan,” 41% favor it, 55% oppose and 4% are unsure. When Republicans start describing it as causing “doctor shortages, longer wait times for urgent care and delays in access to the latest drugs for cancer and other serious diseases,” the numbers move to 34% favor and 60% oppose.

-- THE ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ is actually above water when described as a plan that “would work to address climate change and income inequality, and transition the United States from an economy built on fossil fuels to one driven by clean energy.” 48% favor, 46% oppose and 7% are unsure.

IT SINKS when Republicans start describing it as potentially costing “93 trillion dollars” and hiking energy bills by $3,000. It goes then to 32% support and 61% oppose. Polling memo … Poll deck

[redstatebluegirl]

5. I agree, everyone I have talked to say Medicare for All is a loser for us.

If we work to fix ACA that is workable.

[brush]

25. That's the exact ticket. Three options right there. Give people their choice.

[Cha]

26. Yes! Why not?

[Bettie]

4. I tire of hearing "AIM LOW!"

and then take much, much less than the already low bar.

[Cha]

8. I think it's "aiming" Smart.

[Bettie]

9. Generally, one does not do well in negotiation by saying

OK...this is the very least I can possibly accept!

Generally, that means walking away with far less than the least you can possibly accept.

[Cha]

13. We disagree.. I think Biden's Plan

is the best.. the smartest plan for healthcare.

[Gothmog]

10. From the Washington Post-The GOP is giddy about running against a socialist

Link to tweet

Republicans are downright giddy about all this. What’s a scarier term to the American public than “socialist”? And with one of the leaders in the Democratic Party embracing it, their pitch to voters that Democrats want to radically change the country to something unrecognizable just got a lot easier.

“You add up things like packing the Supreme Court, getting rid of the electoral college, the Green New Deal and Medicare for none and you have a prescription of turning America into something it never has been and never should be,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said recently. “So we intend to be on the offense in running our races."

“We’re going into the war with some socialists,” Trump told a fundraiser in April.

This could be the defining debate of the 2020 election. Trump is so happy with that. Sanders is fine with that. The rest of the candidates aren’t so sure. But given the way this debate is shaping up, they may have no choice but to pick a side.

[brush]

27. It's what you can get people to vote for. If we win the WH and Senate...

and keep the House, then we can PASS medicare for all. Why act like Moscow Mitch will allow it to even be voted on if we don''t win the Senate? And why act like brainwashed repugs will vote for a presidential candidate who is for Medicare for all when FOX and right wing talk radio are blasting it 24/7/365?

We have to have the power to push it through first.

[Gothmog]

6. Washington Post-Democrats back off once-fervent embrace of Medicare-for-all

Link to tweet

But in recent months, amid polling that shows concern among voters about ending private insurance, several of the Democratic hopefuls have shifted their positions or their tone, moderating full-throated endorsement of Medicare-for-all and adopting ideas for allowing private insurance in some form.

“What I think has happened in the Democratic primary is people recognize that some of the concerns about single-payer are not coming from special interests but the public,” said Neera Tanden, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and now president of the Center for American Progress. (A government-run health system is sometimes called a single-payer system.)....

Now some Democrats warn of the perils for their party in taking a position that, to important groups of voters, could seem just as disruptive as the GOP’s push to kill the ACA.

“There is nothing more personal to people than their health care,” said Kathleen Sebelius, who consulted on Harris’s plan and served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration. “Anything that calls for the vast majority of Americans to lose what they have — that’s a very dangerous place to start a conversation.”....

Other surveys have found less support. About 8 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in a Pew poll in July said the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage, but less than half said it should be through a single government plan.

And in a July poll of Iowa voters by CBS News/YouGov, two-thirds of Democrats said they preferred a government health program that competed with private insurance, compared with 34 percent who favored one that replaced private insurance entirely.

[Cha]

7. Good!

[Gothmog]

12. We have to nominate a candidate who can beat trump

Taking away voters private insurance will kill a Democratic nominee in the general election

[Cha]

14. Yes, Biden's plan is absolutely the

smartest way to go.

[FoxNewsSucks]

16. True, why would anyone want

something better and more cost-effective than for-profit corporate insurance?

Isn't anyone else on this thread bothered by the statement that approval drops because of what REPUBLICANS say? Are we supposed to just roll over and let republicons keep calling the shots and setting the narrative?

[Gothmog]

17. From the Washington Post-The GOP is giddy about running against a socialist

Link to tweet

Republicans are downright giddy about all this. What’s a scarier term to the American public than “socialist”? And with one of the leaders in the Democratic Party embracing it, their pitch to voters that Democrats want to radically change the country to something unrecognizable just got a lot easier.

“You add up things like packing the Supreme Court, getting rid of the electoral college, the Green New Deal and Medicare for none and you have a prescription of turning America into something it never has been and never should be,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said recently. “So we intend to be on the offense in running our races."

“We’re going into the war with some socialists,” Trump told a fundraiser in April.

This could be the defining debate of the 2020 election. Trump is so happy with that. Sanders is fine with that. The rest of the candidates aren’t so sure. But given the way this debate is shaping up, they may have no choice but to pick a side.

[FoxNewsSucks]

19. I am sick of running and hiding

from whatever strawman boogeyman republicons make up.

Individual democratically social policies are approved by majorities, even majority republicans. Remember when people were polled on the ACA, liked every aspect of it, but said "hell no i don't want no Obamacare"?

If republicons are giddy, it's from the knowledge that apparently no Democrats or media will inform the public about their lies.

[Gothmog]

20. You do realize that polling set forth above show that Medicare for All polls badly

[FoxNewsSucks]

21. You do realize that the owner of the Post

paid zero taxes on $11 billion of Amazon profits, and probably doesn't want to start paying taxes.

When explained, a public option such as MFA is a better choice than the current profit-driven insurance system. I'm not holding my breath waiting for Bezos' paper to explain it, though.

[Gothmog]

23. This does not change the polling cited above

Medicare for All would help re-elect trump in the real world. That is why trump wants to run against sanders or Warren

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

24. Democrats Back Off Medicare-for-All

I am glad that Democrats are backing off of Medicare-for All https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/20/democrats-back-off-medicare-for-all/

“The idea of Medicare-for-all — a unified government health program that would take over the basic function of private insurance — became a liberal litmus test at the outset of the presidential campaign, distinguishing Democratic contenders who cast themselves as bold visionaries from more moderate pragmatists.”

“But in recent months, amid polling that shows concern among voters about ending private insurance, several of the Democratic hopefuls have shifted their positions or their tone, moderating full-throated endorsement of Medicare-for-all and adopting ideas for allowing private insurance in some form.”

“This unmistakable, if sometimes subtle, shift in tone stems in part from Democrats’ fear of giving away a newfound advantage over Republicans on health care.”

[oasis]

29. Dems need to back off, run away, and hide from MFA. nt

[emmaverybo]

28. Biden makes sense. His policy proposals make sense. Support for Medicare4All and open borders

are political suicide. I’d like candidates to put the fancy plans on pause for now and answer this questions: what qualifies you to be the leader of the free world, the leader of a super power, the president of the U.S.?

[question everything]

31. K&R

[elocs]

32. Medicare for All is a nonstarter that won't happen anytime soon, if ever,

and none of the candidates who support it are honest enough to explain just how it ever has a chance to become law.
I'm sure voters will be delighted about not being able to keep their own private insurance if they like it. At least it's not like, "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor".
I'm sure that there even might be a few Democrats who would not be happy about that.

Are we just that sure that anybody we nominate can defeat Trump while promising anything, no matter how liberal it might be? Is this like how so many were absolutely convinced that Clinton would beat Trump so they could with a clear conscience just not vote or vote 3rd party?