Ready The Clown Car: The First Batch of Democrats Are Ready To Announce Their 2020 Bids

pretty sure that's a disability slur . . . careful there cowboy

 

Jeez, it was a few different polls. Are you seriously just labeling anything you disagree with as fake news, or is the above post sarcastic? I can't tell.

Here's more polling, from Kaiser Family Foundation:
https://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-january-2019/

Essentially, majorities favor any form of a medicare or medicaid for everyone model. The partisan breakdown is interesting.
Now even 47% of republicans are in favor of essentially what Obama referred to as "the public option", an optional national medicare-like program you could subscribe to if you want, or stay with your current program if not.

Kamala Harris's take, supposedly eliminating private insurance (that won't happen, not even in Sweden/Norway is that the case, there will still always be Cadillac plans for the rich) is the least popular, but even that polls a majority in favor even though republicans are 23% in favor.

 

Sherrod would be an incredible VP candidate - has pull in the Midwest and a long history of fighting for the working man

 

Unlike your insightful bullshit?

 

Agreed. Other interesting VP possibilities... Amy Klobuchar, John Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock, Beto O'Rourke, and Julian Castro. That is, of course, if Amy Klobuchar doesn't win the nomination herself.

 

"How Democrats' Tax Obsession Could Backfire":

When Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced her candidacy for president, she promised a laundry list of new federal programs — Medicare-for-all, universal pre-kindergarten education, debt-free college — plus the "largest working-class tax cut in decades." How did she propose paying for that tax cut? By getting rid of President Trump's tax cut for "corporations" and the "top 1 percent." But there's a flaw in the plan: While repealing the Republican-passed tax cut in its entirety, including the parts of it that benefited neither corporations nor the top 1 percent, would save an estimated $2 trillion, Harris' big ticket items would undoubtedly cost trillions more. In other words, her grand tax plan just doesn't add up.

This is a problem not just for Harris, but across the Democratic 2020 presidential field. The candidates — and their voters — want a big increase in federal spending to support new social services. But they seem to have yet to realize that simply nudging the top marginal income tax rate back up won't pay for it all. Deficits are already spiking even without this new spending, and over the long term, Republican tax cuts only account for so much of the red ink.

And there's another downside to the idea of hiking the top marginal income tax rate: It could alienate affluent, college-educated suburbanites, which have become some of the Democratic Party's most valuable voters. Many of them used to vote Republican but refused to vote for Donald Trump. While many of them are in their peak earning years, they're not wealthy enough to absorb a major tax increase. In fact, such an increase could drive them back into the GOP's arms.

Nevertheless, freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) has suggested raising the top marginal tax rate all the way back to 70 percent, where Ronald Reagan found it 38 years ago. She wants the cut-off to be at the "tippy top" — people making around $10 million a year. That won't raise much revenue, but applying it to everyone who pays the current top rate would start dipping into valuable Democratic voters' pockets.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) "wealth tax" is a little bit different, and may be a more viable option for Democrats. She wants to hit those Americans who have assets in excess of $50 million with a 2 percent tax, in addition to a 3 percent levy on those whose assets top $1 billion. Economist Emmanuel Saez estimated to The Washington Post that the tax would raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years.

That's still not enough. That amount won't cover the cost of expanding Medicare beyond senior citizens, for example. And the wealth tax faces constitutional hurdles. But it would bring in more money than repealing the Trump tax cuts, while taxing far fewer people.

Whatever the shortcomings of a wealth tax like Warren's — and there are several, which is why eight of the 12 European countries that imposed such levies in 1990 repealed them as of 2017 — such levies will become increasingly attractive to Democrats as a way to get more revenue out of the rich without hitting their own voters.

But if Democrats aren't careful, their tax obsession could be a gift to the GOP. Republicans lost their ironclad grip on the tax issue once they mostly found themselves arguing against relatively modest increases in the top rate. But if Democrats once again become the party of broad-based tax increases, their new suburban voters might start to have second thoughts about sending self-described socialists to Congress. Walter Mondale, the last Democratic presidential candidate who openly admitted he would raise taxes on the middle class, lost in a 49-state landslide.​

https://theweek.com/articles/819780/how-democrats-tax-obsession-could-backfire

more at the link

 

Perhaps you should quote Mr. Schultz completely?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/politics/howard-schultz-medicare-for-all-cnntv/index.html

I think you should include that on your trump campaign poster.

 

George Will thinks Klobuchar might be best equipped to beat Trump in 2020:

As the bidding war for the affection of the Democratic left spirals into inanity — “Abolish ICE!”; “70 percent marginal tax rate!”; “Impeach the president!”; “Pack the Supreme Court!”; “Medicare-for-all!”; “Free college!”; “Free other stuff!” — Klobuchar is the potential top-tier candidate most apt to resist forfeiting the general election while winning the nomination.

Her special strength, however, is her temperament. Baseball, it hasbeen said, is not a game you can play with your teeth clenched. That is also true of politics, another day-by-day game with a long season. It requires an emotional equipoise, a blend of relaxation and concentration, stamina leavened by cheerfulness. Klobuchar laughs easily and often. If the nation wants an angry president, it can pick from the many seething Democratic aspirants, or it can keep the president it has. If, however, it would like someone to lead a fatigued nation in a long exhale, it can pick a Minnesotan, at last.​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...7b05d5bed90_story.html?utm_term=.44260926c249

 

George Will is such a great writer, on politics and on baseball. Love the baseball analogy. Also love the Minnesotan reference (HHH).

 

Trump has raised $21 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, mostly in amounts under $200:

President Trump’s campaign and affiliated committees announced Thursday they raised more than $21 million in the final three months of 2018 — a strong showing at a particularly tumultuous point in his presidency and a sign of the formidable head start he has in fundraising over the Democrats seeking to unseat him.

That brings the total fundraising haul for his reelection effort to more than $129 million, a record amount for a sitting president at this point in the election cycle. The campaign has more than $19.2 million in cash on hand by the end of 2018, officials said.

Trump’s fundraising stands in stark contrast to the wide-open Democratic presidential contest, where as many as two dozen candidates may vie for the party’s nomination and candidates are now gearing up their campaigns and fundraising capabilities.

The Democratic presidential hopefuls face a bruising and expensive primary battle, and are far behind Trump’s fundraising haul. For example, the campaign committee of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who launched her presidential run on Dec. 31, had $12.5 million in her Senate committee by the end of November, FEC filings show. This money can be transferred to her presidential campaign, but much of it is expected to be spent in the primaries.

The majority of the money Trump raised during the period came from donors giving in sums of $200 or less, the campaign said. These figures are expected to be reported in new Federal Election Commission records that will be released Thursday night.

Trump’s enormous haul in the third quarter came even as the president’s party lost its majority in the House during the midterm elections, and as Trump’s demand for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border led to a partial shutdown of the federal government and sagging presidential approval ratings.
​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...24486280311_story.html?utm_term=.2bd7f0c81e7d

 

PT Barnum was so prescient.

 

Having a wrong opinion 40 years ago isn't the same as being a rapist 40 years ago. (allegedly)

 

thinly-disguised Bill Clinton Juanita Broaddrick reference?