Steve CoxKonto zweryfikowane

Listen to yourself, Steve. You're saying we should completely scrap our entire healthcare system and not utilize the infrastructure we have in place to ensure everyone can be covered for their basic needs with a reduction of hundreds of $ billions per year in cost.

If that's what it takes to get it right, then that's what it takes. I'm not saying that's what it *will* take. I'm saying we need to do it right.

Then what we need to do is follow the polling and utilize the infrastructure we have in place to provide Medicare-for-all, then build on that. Your proposition is not only infeasible, it's not what the American people want right now.

Providing every man, woman, and child life-saving healthcare at an affordable price isn't "incrementalism" - it's a major leap ahead from even the embattled ACA. What you're proposing simply will not fly in any state until the Medicare foundation is solidified.

Affordable? 18% of GDP is not "affordable".

The federal budget is not just one lever that needs pulled. Clearly there needs to be a redistribution in other areas of spending. No progressive who has even a cursory knowledge will dispute that.

I advocate for 80% federal income tax in the top bracket. But 18% is still too much for healthcare as a percentage of GDP.

Taxable income is only part of the equation. Federal spending on the DoD is a major chunk of our costs (well over 50% now), as an example. There are corporate tax loopholes that need closed. Lots of ways to trim the fat.