Jimmy Dore, a comedian turned journalist turned podcast host, is putting the democratic party’s feet to the fire by creating a political campaign called #ForceTheVote in order to get medicare for all onto the house floor.
He wants the most hardline left wing members of the democratic party to withhold their vote to reinstate Nancy Pelosi to her current position as Speaker of the House if she does not bring a vote on Medicare for All to the house floor. Most of the progressive members of the democratic party ran on Medicare for All and Jimmy is singling out 15 of them who he feels have a responsibility to do this if they are authentic regarding their campaign promises. The reasoning behind the idea is that whether the bill passes or not, members of congress left and right would have to show their true colors about this policy proposition. Polling data shows that at least 56% and up to 70% of Americans support medicare for all. Jimmy likes the cite the latter, but even the lower estimate is a majority of Americans.
The reason Jimmy believes that progressive members of the house have the leverage to force this vote is because the democratic party currently has a weak enough majority that if the progressives were to withhold their votes for Nancy Pelosi as speaker, she would in fact not have the votes to win reelection to her position.
There are enough members of the house who are progressives who ran on being for Medicare For All that they could force this vote, but so far many of them have pushed back on this plan and have signaled that they will not be using their leverage to #ForceTheVote at this time.
The movement has quickly gained steam on social media and for a good reason. Most people left and right see no reason why this cannot be done. Speaker Pelosi needs her progressive allies in order to win reelection so why don’t the progressives use their leverage to force this vote on the house floor?
I myself have not been a proponent of government healthcare in the past because of the incredibly high cost these programs carry. I have not been an opponent either but the costs are certainly a big concern to me. If you have read anything i have written in the past, you’ll know that one of my most pressing concerns is how our children will be able to pay back the massive amount of debt that the federal government has taken on in the last 20 years. I would hate for our kids to live in poverty just for us to live fat and happy now.
With all that said, the current government funded health care system put in place by the Obama administration, called the affordable care act, has already skyrocketed federal expenditures. Health care now totals almost 20% of the United States entire GDP.
What we see with the affordable care act is the worst of both worlds, left and right, where doctors lose bargaining power for their services, private citizens and small businesses find increased insurance costs, and still not everyone has health care. See CNBC. Why? The administrative expenses of a system like the affordable care act end up costing the government a lot more than it would to have a blanket plan that covered all americans equally.
Most of this money ends up in the pocket of the owners of hospitals rather than the health care workers themselves. Its essentially socialism for the rich at the expense of small businesses and the working class tax paying citizens who were previously able to bargain for good healthcare as a part of their employment contracts. See Politico
More importantly most studies suggest that the affordable care act, though still not supplying health care to everyone, in fact costs more than Medicare For All would. See ProPublica & TheHill
Politicians being outed when they say one thing and do another is a major reason i started the Purple Pill Podcast and Purplepolitics.news. So I am for this idea and i hope that Jimmy Dore succeeds in pressuring these progressive congress members to do what they promised to do in their campaigns. #ForceTheVote
You must log in to post a comment.