I respect anyone willing to put in the work and back a candidate they believe in. I spent a lot of time working for Obama for free and found it to be very rewarding. I still remember the scene at the Ohio Headquarters when he won in ‘08.
That said, people like Pete need to be chased from the party. If “winning” means a Public Option Brought To You By United Health and Pfizer, no thanks. Pete is exactly why these soulless corporate ghouls buy politicians of both parties - because it works.
Hard pass on anyone who doesn’t see the need to blow the whole damn thing up or is unwilling to do so.
Where would he go? Where would I go? where would the millions of people who don’t want to burn it all down but also don’t agree with republicans go? A third party? You know what that would do.
He’s a fucking republican. He literally stood up on stage and spouted HMO-approved bullshit. Nobody actually believes that shit, definitely not Pete. I don’t care where he goes, probably on the McKesson board to negotiate a friendly opioid settlement. His voters will go to Team Actually Fucking Do Something.
He’s welcome to sit on the back bench of the party and vote for the stuff that the progressive leadership puts in front of him, the same way the left wing has been relegated to voting for shitty half measures for the last few decades.
This probably belongs in the healthcare thread, but meh. The cost-savings thing has become a meme around here, but it’s really not clear, honestly. The figure that everyone cites from the Mercatus paper was their estimate under the most favorable assumptions. Pretty good article here from the NYT. Bottom-line graph:
Note that Urban Institute, who have the highest cost estimate, are a left-leaning think tank:
The Urban Institute has been referred to as “independent” and as “liberal”. A 2005 study of media bias in The Quarterly Journal of Economics ranked UI as the 11th most liberal of the 50 most-cited think tanks and policy groups, placing it between the NAACP and the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Nobody really knows what the costs would be, it’s complicated. The point is that they are comparable and for that you get comprehensive coverage for everyone with healthcare as a human right.
I mean you can just assert that, but the government is the only buyer of military equipment, would you characterise the costs for military hardware as “easy to control”?
I’m for M4A, don’t get me wrong, but I’m probably going to go with the estimates from people who have tried to model how it would work over armchair “ez game” arguments.
of course it’s real. It’s the first time they met, actually. Zuck came to South Bend in 2017 to look for places to do philanthropic work. no idea what came of it. Pete is a mayor, who was looking out for opportunities for his city.
He also had to work with Pence, but we know how he feels about that.
