And if you've never heard of Huck Gutman, like me, well, you can probably imagine what his 'solutions' will be when I tell you he was a former chief of staff to Senator Bernie Sanders and emeritus professor at the University of Vermont...
Those who fight for the future of our nation need to fight not just against threats, but for a just and equitable future. Too often the well-deserved plaudits for those who fight against do not extend to articulating a program of what the American nation needs, in addition to democratic institutions.
Here are five specific suggestions for what we should be fighting for.
Oh boy! Let me get my popcorn!
First, the nation needs a new minimum wage, a living wage, not the residue of 1938 legislation called the Fair Labor Standards Act. No one can live on $7.25 an hour, which translates to about $15,000 a year.
Oh, wouldn’t it have been nice if the first suggestion hadn’t been something that’s been discredited every time it’s been tried? Socialists, eh? 🤷♀️
Second, Americans deserve healthcare as a right. A Medicare for All system would extend healthcare to every person. Its cost would be more than offset by eliminating the 25% of healthcare spending that goes for overhead in our private-insurance-dominated system.Cutting $1tn of needless bureaucratic expenses and bill-keeping would ensure that we have the money to provide healthcare to everyone.
Ah, so, give America the NHS? Which is such a raging success here, and would never lead to needless bureaucratic expense…
Third, Americans should find it easy to join unions if they wish. The decline in unionization is a major reason why, as the wealthy get ever wealthier, wages have been flat or declining for almost 50 years.
Wages are flat or declining because we are finding new ways to get things done, ways that don’t rely on manpower. It’s called ‘progress’.
Fourth, we need to increase taxes on the wealthy. There is no reason that Warren Buffett, as he has said, should pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.
And there was no reason Buffett couldn’t write a cheque - sorry, ‘cut a check’ in your vernacular- to the US Treasury for the difference, if he felt that strongly about it. Did he?
Fifth, we should reverse the deeply damaging Citizens United decision, which enabled the wealthy and their special interests to buy elections.
Because now someone outside of your clique has done it, Huck?
The same old tired socialist ‘ideas’ that American voters rejected. Couldn’t you have found five that they might want? OK, maybe you can’t get Trump again, but keep pushing this stuff and you’ll just get someone like him next time.
4 comments:
His parents should have spent more on education.
Well grammar at least.
Politician expects his worldview to be beneficial for everyone else (shocker) despite reality getting in the way.
The people he's preaching to won't care...
It's an age old story!
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