Andrew Yang Explains Why His Health Care Plan Would ‘save Us Money’
The plan doesn’t provide a total cost, or a funding source. His proposal also does not include at what age Americans can opt-in to Medicare, nor does it address the millions of Americans currently uninsured or provide information on how copays, deductibles, and premiums would be impacted for those who are insured.
The “Medicare for All” proposals by candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., envision a landscape where private insurance is rendered obsolete. Yang has changed his stance on Medicare for All over recent months, but has maintained support for keeping private insurers if they can compete in the market.
In a June conversation with a New Hampshire voter, Yang referred to himself as “pro-Medicare for All” and said he thought health care should be a “basic right.”
But by last month, he told reporters that “the difference between my approach and Senator Sanders and Senator Warren is that I disagree that everyone hates their private insurance plan.”
Here are more details from Yang’s plan:
Mike Memoli and Kailani Koenig
Religion Heritage And Values
As Sanders described his upbringing as an American Jew in a 2016 speech: his father generally attended synagogue only on Yom Kippur he attended public schools while his mother “chafed” at his yeshiva Sunday schooling at a Hebrew school and their religious observances were mostly limited to Passoverseders with their neighbors. Larry Sanders said of their parents, “They were very pleased to be Jews, but didn’t have a strong belief in God.” Bernie had a bar mitzvah at the historic Kingsway Jewish Center in Midwood, Brooklyn, where he grew up.
In 1963, in cooperation with the Labor Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, Sanders and his first wife volunteered at Sha’ar HaAmakim, a kibbutz in northern Israel. His motivation for the trip was as much socialistic as it was Zionistic.
As mayor of Burlington, Sanders allowed a Chabadpublic menorah to be placed at city hall, an action the ACLU contested. He publicly inaugurated the Hanukkahmenorah and performed the Jewish religious ritual of blessing Hanukkah candles. His early and strong support played a significant role in the now widespread public menorah celebrations around the globe. When asked about his Jewish heritage, Sanders has said that he is “proud to be Jewish.”
In 2016, he disclosed that he had “very strong religious and spiritual feelings”, adding, “My spirituality is that we are all in this together and that when children go hungry, when veterans sleep out on the street, it impacts me.”
Column: An Allegedly Senile Joe Biden Keeps Succeeding
In a Democratic presidential debate in September 2019, Julian Castro thought he heard Joe Biden say something that contradicted himself, and he pounced on the opportunity to suggest that Biden was over the hill. Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? he demanded. Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago?
Propelled by this moment of triumph, Castro went on to become a member of the board of directors of a Washington think tank. His humiliated opponent was never heard from again.
As it turned out, Castro was the one confused about what Biden had said. If the 2020 campaign proved anything, its that underestimating Biden is hazardous. But Republicans persist in depicting him as a decrepit specimen who is wholly inadequate to his presidential responsibilities.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, expressed concern last month that the president was not doing cable news interviews or tweeting much. Is he really in charge? he tweeted. When Biden addressed Congress, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed to hear a 78-year-old man losing his grip. Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. wondered if Biden is a man of diminished capacities who is making himself a prop for an agenda that he may not quite grasp.
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Columns are opinion content that reflect the views of the writers.
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Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/chapman.
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Dental Coverage In The Medicare For All Plan
If the Medicare for All bill passed, the government would beef up Medicare to include things like vision care, lab services, maternity care and, most importantly, dental benefits. This would mean that all Americans could enjoy dental health care coverage from their insurance plan. It would also mean that Americans health care coverage would be even more comprehensive than coverage available in other countries with single-payer systems. For example, Canadians have single-payer care, but their dental care is not covered. Dental benefits are also left out of single-payer plans in the Netherlands and Australia.
Today, many Americans cant afford dental care coverage, and more than 35 percent of all adults in the country dont have any dental benefits. This means that more than one-third of American adults dont regularly go to the dentist for teeth cleanings, checkups and more and they greatly increase their risk of developing oral diseases and conditions that can have a larger negative impact on health overall. In fact, poor oral health can lead to things like cardiovascular disease, dementia and diabetic complications.
If Sanders Medicare for All plan became law, many of the adults who currently dont have dental coverage would finally have access to dental insurance. This may increase the amount of times that they choose to visit the dentist boosting their oral health, and, in turn, their overall well-being.
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The Original Discount Dental Plan
Tom Steyer Staffs Up In South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. Billionaire Tom Steyer is doubling down on the South Carolina ground game for his presidential bid and increasing the size of his campaign throughout the state.
The Steyer campaign currently has over 60 paid directors and organizers on the ground in the state, and plans to add an additional 40 by the end of the year, according to Tiffiany Vaughn Jones, the campaign’s South Carolina communications director.
A staff presence of over 100 will ensure that the Steyer campaign has a dominating presence in the state. As of mid-December, the Sanders campaign has the second-largest roster of staffers, with over 50 on the payroll.
The official title for our organizers are community organizers, said Brandon Upson, Steyers National Organizing Director. Were hiring people specifically in the communities that they live in, have been raised in, so that they can organize their neighbors, their family members.
One of those community organizers, Alonzo Canzater, said he decided to support the campaign after learning more about the investments Steyer himself has made to assist with the water crisis in his own backyard and sponsoring local food drives.
For Canzater, he hopes that this personal investment means a President Steyer wouldn’t forget about South Carolina voters.
A lot of presidents, they try to use the African American community to get those votes, but once they get in there, we dont see them. But I think Tom is going to stick to his word,” Canzater said.
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A Former Sanders Employee Is Calling Voters And Lying About Biden Having Dementia
A former employee of Bernie Sanders was using the Biden campaigns virtual phone banking tool to call voters and spreading the lie that Biden has Dementia.
The Biden campaign posted about the former employee:
A former Bernie employee is using our virtual phonebank tool to call voters and tell them Joe Biden has dementia and is live-streaming it. Well cut him off in a little bit but I figured its worth everyone seeing this stuff in action.
Rob Flaherty
The guy was live-streaming his calls to voters:
Joe Biden does not have Dementia. What Sanders and Trump supporters are calling Dementia, is, in reality, a stutter. Joe Biden has a stutter that he has worked his entire life to overcome.
It is very Trump-like of Bernie Sanders supporters to falsely claim that Joe Biden has Dementia when their candidate has refused to release his full medical records after he had a very real heart attack.
Out of Trump, Sanders, and Biden, Joe Biden is the only candidate who has released his medical records.
The actions of some Sanders supporters are why his campaign has been isolated from the Democratic Party and is withering on the vine.
Sanderss supporters are acting like the Trump campaign and Trump supporters. These activities have no place in a Democratic primary and should have been immediately condemned by Bernie Sanders.
Geriatrics Experts Say Brit Humes Claim That Joe Biden Is Senile Is Wrong
If Your Time is short
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Senility is not a precise medical term, but is often used in place of the more precise and accepted medical term of dementia.
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Experts said Biden does not exhibit signs of dementia. Dementia is defined as cognitive decline that is severe enough to cause someone to lose the ability to function independently in daily life.
A persistent Republican line of attack against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is the allegation that he is not mentally fit to lead the nation. President Donald Trump amplifies that claim at his rallies and so do pundits on Fox News.
On the night of the Sept. 29 presidential debate in Cleveland, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said on TV that despite Trumps claims about Bidens health, Biden might do okay at the debate, since Biden “did just fine” when he debated Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the Democratic primary. Hume then called Biden “senile.”
“Elderly people experiencing memory loss and other problems associated with age can go for periods, for hours at a time and be just fine,” Hume said before the debate. “I dont think theres any doubt Bidens senile, but that doesnt mean its going to show up tonight. … And now that the expectations for him have been set so low, you know if he comes out and doesnt drool and gets through everything pretty well it could end up being quite a boost for him.”
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Carlson had a different take the next night.
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Crack Down On Wall Street
The executive branch has extensive discretion when it comes to regulating the financial industry, both due to provisions in 2010s Dodd-Frank Act and from preexisting securities law. And especially with the Trump-appointed head of the Securities and Exchange Commission resigning to make room for a Biden appointee, Biden and his team could use their authority either timidly or extensively .
Graham Steele, a former senior aide to Sen. Sherrod Brown , the ranking Democrat on the banking committee, outlined what an aggressive strategy would look like in a piece for the American Prospects Day One package. It includes:
The upshot is that the US has some incredibly powerful laws for regulating the banking industry, both because of Dodd-Franks passage and predating it. The question is how aggressively the Biden administration wants to enforce those laws. You can read more in Steeles story here.
One idea Steele doesnt touch on is banning stock buybacks, in which public companies repurchase their own shares from investors. These become an increasingly popular way for corporations to reward shareholders. They face a lower tax burden than traditional dividends , and they can boost share prices. But as Voxs Emily Stewart has explained, they have serious costs. They can cause corporations to prioritize the short-run interests of shareholders above long-run growth, and they can divert funds from both wage increases for workers and R& D/investment in new products.
Endorsement Of Hillary Clinton
After the final primary election, Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee. On July 12, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton. He said he would continue to work with the Democratic National Convention organizers to implement progressive positions. Sanders refused to formally concede before the convention. He spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 25, during which he gave Clinton his full support. Some of his supporters attempted to protest Clinton’s nomination and booed when Sanders called for party unity. He responded, “Our job is to do two things: to defeat Donald Trump and to elect Hillary Clinton … It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency.”
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Buttigieg Questioned For Fundraising With Charter School Advocate
Hastings sits on the board of a public charter school and has donated millions of dollars to various educational institutions including charter schools. Buttigieg emphasized that his position on the issue will not change despite the views of those who contribute to his campaign.
There are 700,000 donors to my campaign, Buttigieg said. Some of them may disagree with me on some of those issues, but my stance will not change, including my support for teachers and my support for labor.
Buttigieg recently opened his closed-door fundraisers to the press amid criticism from Democratic presidential opponents like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
In his K-12 education policy, Buttigieg proposes banning for-profit charter schools and hold public charters schools to the same level of accountability, rigor and oversight as traditional public schools. Hes also emphasized the need for the resources to be fair for schools across the board.
Charter schools have become a hot-topic in the 2020 Democratic race, with most candidates to for profit charter schools as candidates look to earn the support of teachers unions.
Canada Is Not A Great Role Model For These Forms Of Care
Which is why Sanderss proposal stands to serve US seniors even better than Canadas system serves its own elderly citizens. Across Canada, eye exams and treatments for conditions affecting the eyes are covered under provincial health plans. But lenses, frames, and contact lenses typically are not, except for those people on financial assistance. And while hearing tests are covered, provincial governments offer either no assistance or only capped subsidies for hearing aids, which are notoriously expensive.
Dental coverage for most seniors is missing entirely, until someone is in so much pain that they visit an emergency room. Most employers offer dental and vision coverage, but once a person retires, those benefits vanish, and relatively pricey private insurance becomes the only option.
The other leading Democratic candidates in the US have addressed seniors concerns in their policy talking points. As they should, if theyre aware of demographic trends and the fact that more senior voters are moving to the left. But only the Sanders platformand by default Elizabeth Warrensis as specific about full universal coverage for these three issues.
One day, Bernies bus may need to travel to Canada againthis time bearing pointers for his neighbor to the north.
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Polls And News Coverage
Some supporters raised concerns that publications such as The New York Times minimized coverage of the Sanders campaign in favor of other candidates, especially Trump and Clinton. The Times‘ombudsman reviewed her paper’s coverage of the Sanders campaign and found that as of September 2015 the Times “hasn’t always taken it very seriously. The tone of some stories is regrettably dismissive, even mocking at times. Some of that is focused on the candidate’s age, appearance and style, rather than what he has to say.” She also found that the Times‘s coverage of Sanders’s campaign was much scanter than its coverage of Trump’s, though Trump’s was also initially considered a long shot at that time, with 63 articles covering the Trump campaign and 14 covering Sanders’s. A December 2015 report found that the three major networksCBS, NBC, and ABChad spent 234 minutes reporting on Trump and 10 minutes on Sanders, despite their similar polling results. The report noted that ABC World News Tonight had spent 81 minutes on Trump and less than one minute on Sanders during 2015.
Biden Campaign Responds To Impeachment Vote In New Tv Ad
Former Vice President Joe Biden ‘s presidential campaign is out with a new TV ad ahead of Wednesday’s House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a spot that refers to the 2020 election as a fight for America’s soul.
The one-minute cable TV ad, called Soul of America, will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina through Thursday and rebukes Trump by embracing former Vice President Joe Bidens core message about the need to unite and restore the countrys soul. The ad buy is part of the campaigns $6 million paid media expense in the first four early primary states.
The ad features clips of Bidens first blistering speech against Trump delivered early this summer in Burlington, Iowa, where he strongly assailed Trump for having no moral leadership or interest in uniting the country. In that same speech, he went on to accuse Trump of trying to lead with a toxic tongue that has publicly and unapologetically embraced the political strategy of hate, racism and division.
The ad hinges on the reminder Biden often delivers on the campaign trail about restoring the soul of America: that America has never lived up to its ideal written by Thomas Jefferson in the preamble of the Constitution, but it has never flat-out abandoned it as Trump has.
Though the ad never mentions the word impeachment, it makes clear on Bidens belief that the most important and reliable place to remove Trump from office is in the ballot box next November.
Maura Barrett and Benjamin Pu
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