One of my Gentle Readers reminds me that I missed our Liberal Lion roaring at the National Press Club this afternoon. There’s a prepared transcript at Common Dreams and a video at C-Span, which I hope will include the q&a session.
Judging from the transcript, it’s a rambling speech, without a substantial theme, and with a variety of policy proposals that he is hoping to get as far as a vote (lotsa’ luck, sir). There are two major policy proposals he throws out, and I’m wondering how popular they would be in the abstract. The first is a sort of Contract for College:
I propose that every child in America, upon reaching eighth grade, be offered a contract. Let students sign it, along with their parents and Uncle Sam. The contract will state that if you work hard, if you finish high school and are admitted to college, we will guarantee you the cost of earning a degree. Surely, we have reached a stage in America where we can say it and mean it—cost must never again be a bar to college education.I think most people would say we couldn’t afford such a contract, but I wonder if people think it’s a nice idea that we can’t afford, or whether it’s a bad idea. I, of course, think it’s a nice idea we can afford. The second proposal is Medicare for All: “I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen—from birth to the end of life.” Essentially, it’s an opt-out system, where if you prefer private insurance, you can have it, but by default you’d be in the Medicare system. Again, I wonder if people think this would be a good idea. I’m more or less in favor of it, myself, as it’s more or less a single-payer insurer. And, of course, I think we can afford it, because it will destroy the insurers which are massive money drains. But that can scarcely be a commonly held position, can it?
Anyway, that’s what a Liberal Lion is for. And as much as I think those ideas are currently a bit out of the political mainstream, they aren’t very far outside it, are they? People who pay little attention to politics think of Ted Kennedy as a crazy bomb-thrower, a wild-eyed socialist anarchist utopian whatsit, when actually I don’t think he’s supported anything to the left of, say, Your Humble Blogger in many years.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.