US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8287

On August 03 2017 07:45 Introvert wrote:
Can't wait to see this Miller/Acosta exchange when I have time. Heard Acosta is a fool of himself again. We've had too many quiet days in a row.

Btw opposing increasing or supporting a decrease of immigration =/= being against all immigration entirely. I know, it's difficult. A point system is a great idea compared to family favorable immigration.

On August 03 2017 08:08 Plansix wrote:

It's an idea so good it has almost no support in the senate and house. So good it was dead on arrival back in February.

Edit: Miller is a tool and has been forever. He and Sessions are lo Iiving the dream right now.

On August 03 2017 08:17 Introvert wrote:


By that metric skinny repeal was not a bad idea.

Of course it's dead, both parties need immigration. One needs votes the other needs labor. The only thing that's killed "comprehensive immigration reform" every time is the opposition of the people.

On August 03 2017 08:24 Plansix wrote:

Mostly it's just Miller and Sessions. It was their baby in the senate, killing any bipartisan bills.

On August 03 2017 08:21 LegalLord wrote:
It's true that academia has been its own worst enemy for decades, being in a cycle of perpetual decline that forces everyone but the most foolish to walk away. But importing foreigners for slave work perpetuates that decline. I suppose it's less of an H1B issue than an F1 issue, strictly speaking with respect to academia. But it's cut from the same cloth.

If all such visas were to be removed with a Trumpian lack of nuance then I would consider it a blessing.

On August 03 2017 08:26 Introvert wrote:


Are you going to link this idea with the death of the Gang of Eight? Or are you talking about right now?

Bernie Sanders has spent the first months of the new Congress defending Barack Obama’s health reforms as Republicans vowed to repeal them. But after the GOP’s seven-year drive to eliminate the Affordable Care Act collapsed on the Senate floor last week, Sanders is ready to introduce his own solution – government-run universal healthcare for all Americans.

The Vermont senator will spend the next several weeks leading a campaign to build support for his plan before unveiling the bill next month. On Wednesday, he launched a six-figure digital advertising campaign on Facebook and Google that encourages supporters to become “citizen co-sponsors” of his plan, which he calls “Medicare for All”, according to Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis, a reference to the public healthcare program for older Americans.

“Bottom line is: if other countries around the world are providing quality care to all their people, we can do the same,” Sanders told NPR in an interview on Tuesday.

“This is not complicated,” the Vermont senator, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary last year, said. “The American people are familiar with Medicare. By and large it’s quite a popular program. But it starts now when you are 65 years of age. God didn’t create 65 years of age for being the eligibility rate. It should be available for every single person in this country.”

Sanders has been a longtime advocate of the “single payer” system – government-run universal healthcare – and the plan was at the heart of the leftwing, populist agenda that fueled his unexpected rise during the 2016 Democratic primaries. And progressives, emboldened by his success, are eager to seize the moment to push forward their dream of transforming US healthcare.

On Monday night, Sanders sent a message to his supporters asking for ideas on how to shape his Medicare-for-all plan. Within 24 hours, the email had generated 19,000 responses and raised $65,000, Miller-Lewis said.

There are signs that support for a government-run healthcare system is spreading. A survey published in June by the Pew Research Center found that a growing share of Americans support a universal healthcare system. Among all Americans, 33% support a single-payer approach to healthcare, up five points since a January survey and 12 points since March 2014.

And support among Democrats is markedly higher, and rising. In January, 43% of Democrats said they supported a single-payer healthcare system, according to the study. By June, that number rose to 52%.

Sanders and his team are realistic about the prospects of passing such a plan under a Republican-controlled Congress with Donald Trump in the White House. But they are hoping to galvanize support in anticipation of Democratic successes in future elections.

In a June interview with the Guardian, Sanders said he expected “more senators than we’ve ever had before” to sign on to his bill. In 2015, when he introduced similar legislation, he had no co-sponsors.

Sanders declined then to divulge the number of senators who has already agreed to endorse the bill. But several Democrats have publicly declared their support for a single-payer system, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who called it the “next step” for health, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who has said: “We should have Medicare for all in this country.”

The forthcoming legislation will be similar to the proposal Sanders offered during his insurgent campaign, which would have eliminated the country’s health insurance programs and replaced them with coverage for everyone administered by the federal government. The plan, which was financed by increased taxes on wealthy Americans, was criticized by some for being too costly and light on policy details.

Sanders’ mobilization effort will confront the criticisms as part of an educational campaign to introduce the concept of universal care to a public that has long been wary of European-style healthcare systems.

Miller-Lewis said the senator will spend time speaking to voters beyond his base to explain the merits of a universal healthcare system, and to dispel negative assumptions about the approach, such as the concern that it would cause longer wait times for care.

Over the past several months, as Republicans scrambled to find support for a plan to repeal Obamacare, some conservatives warned that the consequence of failing to overhaul the system would be universal healthcare.

A single-payer plan has already been introduced in the House, by congressman John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, who has introduced a similar measure in every Congress since 2003.

When Conyers introduced his latest bill in January, it had 51 co-sponsors. Since then, the number of Democrats signed on to the bill has swelled to 116, a solid majority of the caucus. The proposal had just 62 co-sponsors in total when Conyers introduced it in 2015.

During the hours-long Obamacare repeal debate last week, Republican senator Steve Daines of Montana introduced a single-payer plan that Democrats dismissed as a ploy to embarrass vulnerable moderates who represent conservative states.

“President Trump, the Republicans want to make America great again. The Democrats want to make America like England again,” Daines said, mocking his own amendment, last week.

Sanders protested against the measure and urged Democrats to vote “present” rather than take a position on the bill. The bill failed 0-57 but exposed the inevitable tensions between the progressive and centrist wings of the party.

Four Democrats from states Trump won – Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Jon Tester of Montana, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – and one independent, Angus King, joined Republicans in voting against the bill.

Sanders expects an uphill battle but says now is the political moment to wage this fight.

“Let me be clear,” Sanders wrote in the email to supporters, “this will be an enormously difficult and prolonged struggle, and one which will require the efforts of tens of millions of Americans in every state in this country.

“It will, in fact, require a political revolution in which the American people participate in the political process in a way that we have not seen in the recent history of our democracy.”

On August 03 2017 08:51 KwarK wrote:

Reminder, although Trump insists that he is a Wharton graduate, he is not. Trump has an undergraduate degree from UPenn, he did not attend the Wharton Business school MBA program.

On August 03 2017 08:44 micronesia wrote:

I think this is actually really selfish of the president. He wants to spend several weeks at his particular club, so he's essentially shutting down general aviation over half of northern NJ for the entire time. That area is difficult enough to get through due to the other large airports, and now the only way to avoid the chaos is to go way out of your way and around, which is generally impractical.

Usually if a president is going to spend several weeks in one place outside of DC, I think it will be a place that is a little more isolated and doesn't have such a large impact on the surrounding area.

On August 03 2017 10:15 RvB wrote:

I don't get this obsession with single payer healthcare. There are plenty of alternatives for socialized healthcare which fits the US a lot better. Not every European country has single payer and it's not the always the best option.