New: Mark Kelly, retired astronaut and the husband of Gabby Giffords, has just announced that he is running for Senate in Arizona against Republican Martha McSally. pic.twitter.com/FbInwRqh8m
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 12, 2019
I’m thinking Kelly has a pretty good shot at helping to turn Arizona blue. Thoughts?
Sign me up for a donation to @AmyMcGrathKY if she takes on Mitch McConnell. Who is with me?
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) February 13, 2019
And here’s a far riskier campaign — but wouldn’t it be worth the fight to turf McConnell out of Congress? Politico reports:
Chuck Schumer is actively recruiting a high-profile fighter pilot to take on Mitch McConnell in 2020 — a calculated act of aggression against a leading Republican foe.
Schumer met with Amy McGrath, a Marine veteran-turned 2018 congressional candidate, at Democratic Party headquarters last month to pitch her on running against McConnell. McGrath listened and didn’t rule it out. The Democratic leader first contacted McGrath in December.
McConnell, the longest-serving Senate GOP leader, is gearing up for a reelection fight and leaving little to chance. His political team has begun compiling opposition research on McGrath and delving into tracking footage of her. On Wednesday, senior Republican Party officials involved with a pro-McConnell super PAC will meet in Washington to begin mapping out a potential campaign against McGrath…
Joining Schumer for the meeting with McGrath were Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), as well as top committee officials Scott Fairchild and Devan Barber. McGrath aides Mark Nickolas and Lori LaFave also attended.
Nickolas confirmed the meeting but said that no decision was imminent.
“The military officer in her always approaches these things pretty methodically and thoughtfully,” he said…
McGrath was one of the highest-profile Democratic House candidates of the 2018 election cycle. Initially rejected by Washington Democrats in favor of the better-known mayor of Lexington, Jim Gray, McGrath catapulted to a primary victory on the strength of a viral biographical ad touting her career as a Marine and groundbreaking fighter pilot.
Ultimately, the 44-year-old first time candidate was unable to parlay a multi-million-dollar war chest and national profile into victory in a heavily Republican district. She was narrowly defeated by B[a]rr…
McGrath ran a damn good race last year, and came close to achieving what the conventional wisdom deemed impossible. Mitch McConnell is a much harder target, but his long career of venality and crooked partisanship has been getting more sunlight with his party’s Dear Leader so much in (all the wrong) news. Even Kentucky has to move on from the 19th century some time.
OzarkHillbilly
And when they do it will be back to the 17th century.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) Tweeted:
The twitter comments forced me to make ANOTHER video about #AbrahamLincoln and white supremacy.
https://t.co/5p05EmOPyc https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1095440106519961600?s=17
frosty
@rikyrah: Good morning to you. I wish I wasn’t awake to say it though! i’m going to roll over and see if I can get back to sleep.
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
i admire Cory Booker, which is why i want him 2 run next year for re-election, not president. what I’m not enamored of is his attitude that niceness is what we need in the Oval. what we need there is a ruthless, take-no-prisoners progressive that is willing 2 do whatever it takes
https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1095518056556699648?s=17
rikyrah
Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) Tweeted:
Black women in America are dying at a rate 3-4x higher than white women from pregnancy-related complications. It’s tragic. When you look at it, this isn’t an issue about education. It isn’t about socioeconomics. It’s literally racial bias in our health care system.
https://t.co/KKFk5HiTmK https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1095508356461182977?s=17
rikyrah
SarahCA ?? #TeamPelosi (@SarahBCalif) Tweeted:
Today I told my Dr I was stressed, anxious, depressed. He said most of his patients are saying the same thing. “Never in my career have I seen anything like this. Trump is dramatically affecting peoples mental & physical health. I hate him”
In 15 yrs we’ve never talked politics.
https://twitter.com/SarahBCalif/status/1095126063984701440?s=17
rikyrah
robert mueller is a cop (@notcapnamerica) Tweeted:
NutMeg McCain had another cry-baby moment when she cut Joy off while she was reading the copy for the segment.
Then Joy refused to go on with the segment if Meghan was going to have a tantrum.
LMFAO.
https://t.co/aA7nuLpXbU https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1095095974475825153?s=17
rikyrah
@frosty:
I am trying to get back to sleep too?
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hey…
Where’s the blech??
Jay
@rikyrah:
Good morning to you, still late night here for me.
In the thread below I gave you Warner’s response to the NBC story on the Senate Intelligence story.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Blech… Tho I’m not really feeling it this AM (despite the insomnia) Gonna get up to 55 today with southerly breezes, 59 tomorrow. Should be enough to thaw the ground so I can get some dig work done.
rikyrah
Be A King (@BerniceKing) Tweeted:
Please don’t use my father to suggest or assert that respectability cures racism.
The white supremacy affirming racist discriminates against Black bodies whether the bodies are in sharp suits or in sagging pants.
And my father was assassinated while dressed respectably.
https://t.co/6LHQdaLgXs https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/1095483194785316865?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Blow has my sympathy.
Mike J
@rikyrah: Yes and no. I want ruthless take no prisoners, but I want a sunny face on it. The US media is full of morons. Invite them for bbq, tell them how smart they are and act happy and nice, and that will be the story. While the Republicans are experiencing vivisection, I want the rest of the world to be talking about how great things are and completely ignore their suffering.
rikyrah
???
Sam Levine (@srl) Tweeted:
.@YahooNews reports that when staffers left her office, Sen. Klobuchar would call their new bosses to get offers rescinded
https://t.co/lkbtMIl9uK https://twitter.com/srl/status/1095351988416581632?s=17
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
Why Kamala Harris is glad people are asking if she’s black enough
https://t.co/3RZk328fIF via @politico https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1095561952263319553?s=17
JPL
@rikyrah: That’s ugly!
Baud
@rikyrah: The burden of all decent people.
Mary G
I read in Politico or someplace today that Republicans are convinced that instead of Nancy Pelosi, they can demonize AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar for a year and a half and take back the House! Yeah, that’s the ticket. Maroons.
Mary G
@rikyrah: Bernice King and Chelsea Clinton are masters of the polite but deadly clapback on Twitter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Madame visited her daughter last Friday and was informed that the kid will be going to Tokyo next week, she found a good airfare and is going to take the opportunity. Too bad she won’t have time to get down to Nara where her grandmother was born and raised.
Baud
@Mary G: I thought Chelsea was the devil?
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s awesome. Always wanted to go.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Hard to gauge how it plays among folks who don’t pay much attention to politics, but the coordinated campaign to force Rep. Omar to resign or lose committee memberships strikes me as astoundingly hypocritical. Trump, of all fucking people, calling on someone else to resign for offensive comments? It is to laugh.
@rikyrah: I only watch The View in clips when they’re interviewing someone interesting, but damn, does Meghan McCain ever do anything but glower and pout? What a crybaby.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: We stopped there for a couple of days on our way to Seoul. Had to see Tokyo Disneyland.
satby
I donated to Amy McGrath and would again. Hope she runs. My kid voted for her in that race too. And delighted that Kelly has thrown his hat into the ring in Arizona. I think the Senate is gettable.
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Dems seems to be rallying around her after she apologized.
JPL
@satby: McConnell is a safe seat unfortunately, so I’d rather she challenge Paul in 2022.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: From the yahoo News article:
And more, but…
JPL
Finally I’m having the new roof installed today after a few delays. Mr. Finch does pretty good with sound but this might be a bit much. I assume we’ll have many car rides today.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: My guess is Klobuchar can contain this and move on if people who claimed she was abusive toward them refuse to go on the record or publicly share the allegedly ranty emails.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mary G:
Gee, I wonder what all of them tend to have in common? It’s right on the tip of my tongue ?
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Yeah I’m already tired if this story absent some tangible information I can assess.
evodevo
Us? Move forward from the 19th century? don’t count on it …
JPL
@Baud: The eeyore in me is concerned that if she were to win the nomination, the emails would drop.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I have no idea how this is going to turn out, not even gonna guess.
Baud
@JPL:
If she wins the nomination, her being a bad boss should be irrelevant to anyone who sincerely cares about the issue.
Anyway, the risk of secret information coming out against our nominee is a risk with every candidate. Believe me, I know.
biff murphy
“His political team has begun compiling opposition research on McGrath” … will the ruskies be helping the turtle this election?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: So, you’ve been contacted by AMI and told if you don’t withdraw your candidacy they are going to print pictures of you acting perfectly normal?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s horrible. Those pictures would completely destroy my brand.
NotMax
Round is, like, so old school. :)
JPL
@Baud: You both make me laugh.
Betty Cracker
Have y’all seen any MSM stories about Trump’s health status? He had the annual physical last week, and the lead doctor released a bizarre note predicting that Trump would be healthy for “the next two years and beyond” (what physician does that?), but no hard data was released, e.g., weight, cholesterol levels, etc. I’d like to see the reporters who went to DEFCON1 every time HRC coughed ask some questions, please.
PsiFighter37
I’m not sure why none of Klobuchar’s critics are afraid of retribution. If she is as vindictive as they claim…they should know that she would be quite careful to NOT do anything to burnish their claims.
Not really sure what to make of all of it. Some of the things are definitely out there if true. But if she’s not the greatest boss to work for…well, welcome to what life is like for a lot of Americans.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I can only imagine.
debbie
@rikyrah:
In a better world, nice would be good, just like going higher would be good. But the GOP has created this horrible world, and it demands being tough and relentless to make it a better place.
Aleta
@NotMax: Something like this woeful planet has never orbited the sun before now either.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not to dismiss the experience of having a boss from hell (as we all have had) but is this the worst thing they can find?
Especially when we have the oaf in the oval as the ultimate boss from hell?
debbie
@PsiFighter37:
I believe this is Russian-inspired. Total bullshit.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Dolt 45’s medical ministrations: More quacks than encountered at TaMara’s place.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: I wonder if the people talking about Lincoln’s meeting with Douglass ever read anything Douglass said about Lincoln. Even when he was memorializing Lincoln, he emphasized that Lincoln wasn’t doing it for black people. Which… is really what one would expect. Politics is an art of exploiting enlightened self-interest.
Matt McIrvin
…I mean, maybe you could infer from the Reconstruction amendments that Lincoln had some kind of last-minute change of heart about total racial equality right before he was assassinated. But it seems more likely that he was try to stave off the kind of endless regime of white neo-Confederate electoral dominance that… well, that we actually got anyway. And I guess Lincoln only had anything directly to do with the 13th.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: That’s the truth. Maybe they’re still calculating how tall they’ll need to make him to squeak in under the “morbidly obese” range. I try to avoid the “what if Obama did this” standard because that way lies madness, but damn! Where is Jake Tapper’s cigarette-sensitive nose for news right now?
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
(Repeating from last night.)
Hey, they can’t come up with a wholly new, inscrutable system of weights and measures overnight.
“Weight: 38 glurbs.”
Princess
@Betty Cracker: Trump, and others, call for Omar to resign to create a “both sides” narrative which the press will dutifully report as such. “Who can tell which party holds the bigots? King vs. Oman. Bad people on both sides. So confusing. Oh well.”
Aleta
They’re busy figuring out how much AOC’s clothes cost. As they did for Michelle Obama.
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: I’d like to see the reporters who went to DEFCON1 every time HRC coughed ask some questions, please.
They’re busy figuring out how much AOC’s clothes cost. Like they did for Michelle Obama.
Princess
(My bolding). How dare a woman have ambition and dream of being president?
Also: with the story about her speaking to future employers of past staffers — is she calling them up or are they doing the perfectly normal thing of checking with their future hire’s previous employer, and she is giving her candid opinion?
Matt McIrvin
Democrats are getting dragged all over Twitter right now for proposing Medicare buy-in for people over 50.
I hate to see the perfect made the enemy of the good, but the draggers have a point. As a 50-year-old guy it sounds great to me. But the job market is also fine for me, at least at the moment. It’s young people who are really getting squeezed, even in a supposedly good economy.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack:
One can debate whether this is or is not the worst thing in the world (tho it begs the question of why trade one boss from hell for another) but in my experience good people, competent people, people who care, don’t stick around for very long. Neither did I. I might be a pita shit, but I’m a self-respecting pita shit. IF she treats the people around her like shit, I certainly wouldn’t expect her to give a rat’s ass about what matters to some old broke down hillbilly carpenter.
None of which is to say she is the boss from hell, the jury is still out. But it is a thing I will weigh when deciding who I vote for in the primaries.
guachi
@Matt McIrvin: No one should take “getting dragged all over Twitter” as meaningful to anything outside of Twitter. Ever.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Haters gonna hate.
Baud
@guachi: And this.
Dorothy A. Winsor
If you are on twitter, I have to apologize ahead of time and issue a warning. My DIL named me in this twitter challenge where every day for a week, you post the cover of a book you love. I’m fine with that. But each day you’re supposed to challenge someone else to do the same, so in my efforts to be a good MIL, I’m going to wind up fingering some of you. Feel free to ignore!
(Yet another reason to stay off twitter)
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s much more difficult for people over 50 to get re-hired at the same level once they lose a job, especially in lower status jobs or jobs that require physical work. That’s what scares them and it scares them to death- that they will lose employer-provided health insurance and not be able to get it back.
The argument I always heard was people over 50 use many, many more health care services, so taking them out of the private market benefits young people. Imagine if we put everyone over 65 back into a private health insurance pool. Risk would skyrocket, immediately. The only reason health insurance is at all affordable is we took the most expensive group out of it. Private health insurance, as a market, is wholly dependent on a public program, and that program is Medicare. It collapses without Medicare.
Medicare at 50 provides health insurance to a group who are higher risk and also takes that higher risk group out of the market young people are in.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. She could be hard on her workers because she is obsessed with having a good public image. But that’s something you have to judge for yourself.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
When you look at both bookends- Medicaid on the very low end and Medicare on the older end, you see that private health insurance takes this (admittedly big) slice of lower risk people in the middle.
What Democrats have actually done over the years is make that middle slice market smaller and lower risk. First with Medicare, then with Medicaid, then with two expansions of Medicaid- SCHIP and the Obama expansions.
Private health insurers should love government programs. It makes their market possible.
Princess
Has anyone noticed posts getting deleted from this thread this morning? I posted one thing which went to moderation (I think I mistyped my email address) and another, which seemed to post but is now gone. Also, posts I saw from other people have vanished. All innocent stuff — no links, no trolling. Weird.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s when you combine Medicare and Medicaid (elderly and handicapped) you really see the benefit to private insurers. That’s the highest risk group of all and we’ve simply removed them from the market.
Private insurance doesn’t really “work” at unless it gets this massive government assist. It doesn’t cover millions and millions of people it would need to if it were the ONLY option. Private insurance needs government insurance much more than the reverse :)
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
So of course private insurers want to keep that middle market. They don’t have to cover the people who the most expensive – government handles that- they get a young and middle aged group who are mostly college educated.
I just wish they would admit it.
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
If true, THIS is far more problematic to me. This indicates vindictiveness.?
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Congratulations to her??
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
If you like Medicare, and I think people really, really do, you could also argue that a younger and healthier group buying in benefit the program as a whole. They’re paying but they’re not claiming as much. You want them in there.
I’m sort of curious what the age cut off is, where private insurers would say “cost more than they pay” and not oppose. What part of the market would they give up – that number exists. Maybe it’s 55 and that’s how that almost passed.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I got laid off because I was “too old” at the age of 55. The truth is I was breaking down. My wife and a friend both lost their jobs one month apart at the magical age of 60. Educated, skilled, dependable. Months later they are still looking.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: That’s an important point that isn’t emphasized nearly enough in the healthcare debate.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Come on, BC.
The continued accomplice behavior of the MSM with Dolt45 when they would have whined if 44 or Hillary had put out a bullshyt statement like that ?? ?
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
If not for Lieberman, we would be going on close to 10 years of the Medicare age being 55.
For that alone, that muthaphucka should be dragged forever ??
Baud
@Kay:
Everything you say is true, but I took from Matt’s comments that it was the Twitter left that was attacking Dems and not private insurers
Baud
@rikyrah: Yep.
rikyrah
Did anyone see where Turtle is going to allow a vote on the Green New Deal?
Did I read right?
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Klobuchar reminds of a female boss I had, who was all rah rah feminist and kindly mother figure on the surface but a real bitch underneath, especially to her female underlings. AK gives me those flashbacks.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sure. It’s huge. I think too big a part of health care policy revolves around white collar workers. Obama ran into this. He had to try to provide health insurance to people who need it without disrupting the market for college educated people who, generally, had it. He said this. Over and over. That was the political reality.
OTOH, Medicare for younger people is a great deal for Medicare because they’re cheap as shit to cover. What might happen is young people once again subsidize older people, just inside Medicare instead of in private markets, but that may be unavoidable in health care.
Baud
@rikyrah: He thinks it’s a liability for Dems.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: That’s what I’m reading. If true it means trump is gonna sign it.
Kay
@Baud:
Thanks. I just find “the Twitter Left” completely unhelpful so I glided over that part :)
I thought 55 was a great idea and 50 is better. I think people should look at it like “public markets and private markets”- taking from one and adding to the other. What happens to both?
rikyrah
@Kay:
I am a Medicaid for All person, but the GOP has been successful in putting false poster children as symbols of the program.??. The same folks who are the poster children for Medicare SHOULD be the poster children for Medicaid:
Elderly White People
Because THAT is who gets the highest % of Medicaid $$$
NotMax
@rikyrah
As it’s an aspirational document rather than directly targeted legislation, wouldn’t be at all surprised.
And Dolt 45 will veto it regardless, so McC is off the hook.
Another Scott
I’m not normally a fan of first-timers running for state-wide or national office, but Mark Kelly has been extremely well vetted in many ways (Astronaut, Giffords’ husband, heavily involved with their anti-gun-violence non-profit, etc.). Go Mark Go.
Maybe McConnell can win re-election, but he (like every Teabagger) needs a strong well-funded challenger. He’s 76. No reason why he shouldn’t feel the desire to take his war-chest and retire rather than spend it all on a campaign. Amy sounds good, too.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ok… Can someone point to a real.nuts and bolts review of the Green New Deal, by someone who isn’t hostile to it?
Kay
@rikyrah:
And no one looks at it systemically. So what happens if we get rid of Medicaid covering nursing home care (and all the other intensive health care for elderly lower income)? They have to go somewhere. They have to be taken care of. Where do they go and who does the work? They go to middle aged people. Medicaid subsidizes middle aged people. We would have to do the work or pay for the work to get done. We don’t. Medicaid pays it.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I agree Kay. Get that AARP card and sign up for Medicare too.
Works for me ?.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: FORGET EVERYTHING I SAID HERE!!!!!
MomSense
@Matt McIrvin:
I think the transition to Medicare is going to have to be incremental if it is going to actually work, though. I think it should start by Medicare but in at 50 with an expansion of Medicaid eligibility at the same time. Especially if the 50 + crowd have Medicare – all the college age progeny of that cohort will now need coverage.
The polling on medicare for all is not as solid as people think. Once tax increases get added to the mix the approval drops down to 37%.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: OOOppps, I’m sorry, I misread your question, I thought you were speaking of the shutdown deal. Brainfart brainfart brainfart!!!!
Ladyraxterinok
@rikyrah: And white supremacists don’t care. In fact I bet they cheer–potentially means fewer black ‘thugs’ being born to be threats.
I want to throw up when I realize I’ve probably got it right!
Kay
@Baud:
The Twitter Left on health care bug me because there’s this whole “elite” thing happening that they won’t admit.
I saw it during the Obamacare debate. They don’t actually want an NIH because they consider this lower quality care. There’s this whole “I can’t go to A CLINIC” thing that I feel like just completely blows their self-image as The Peoples Party.
I feel like they won’t consider Medicaid as a quality program because it’s Medicaid, and Medicaid is for poor people, and poor people are icky.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: There is nothing to vote on. Like you said, it’s an aspirational proposal.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
“He is a florid gentleman of 20 stone.”
Ladyraxterinok
@rikyrah: The GOP will never ever let up on any potential dem candidate!!
The goal??– make running for any office look so unpleasantly awful no one with a family and/or a reasonably happy life will want to run!!
rikyrah
@Kay:
You have always been right about this, Kay.
The elitism?
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: AFAICT the “Twitter left” basically thinks that since, deep down in their hearts, everyone agrees with them about everything, they should *have* everything they want already. Wanting things loudly is not how politics works.
OzarkHillbilly
@FlipYrWhig:
Say WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!! Now what am I gonna do???
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Yup. Saw a four-way intersection the other day with only three taco trucks. What’s up with that?
;)
Ladyraxterinok
@Baud: Do dems have excellent, far-ranging oppo research on every candidate from state office on up?
And are dem candidates doing oppo-style research on themselves?
It’s a new world of Russian meddling and social media.
We were warned with what happened to Bill Clinton–see Joe Conason and Gene Lyons book The Hunting of the President. The GOP was conducting negative research on him while he was still governor!
We dems have known about these tactics since the early 90s. Where oh where have we been!??!
And remember the vicious smear research spread against Anita Hill! IIRC much of that came out after Thomas was confirmed, but they wanted to destroy any positive opinion of her. AND of course intimidate any other woman–or anyone–who might be thinking of speaking out against the PTB, MoTU–also known as as our ‘divinely anointed rightful rulers’!
IIRC 2 women (who wrote for the WSJ?) published a book about the intense, co-ordinated campaign vs Anita Hill.
gene108
@FlipYrWhig:
They are far more arrogant. They realize not everyone agrees with them, but what they are proposing is so awesome and so for your own good, once they get their way everyone will realize how awesome the Left is and the doubters will wonder why they ever thought differently before.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
It fell apart for me when they wouldn’t credit the expansion of Medicaid as “progressive”. It is. Unequivocally. It’s also a huge POLITICAL success that gets them where they want to go because once people have Medicaid they won’t go back but they can’t do it because it makes them wrong about something.
In Ohio, child support includes something called “cash medical”. It’s the amount the obligor pays for health insurance for children. What happened was, Ohio was running into the situation where the children were on Medicaid. What they did was charge the parent for the Medicaid. That’s the “cash medical”. It’s really affordable. No one minds paying it. It’s ALWAYS cheaper than private insurance. There will be a huge group of people who are already paying for public health insurance, and they love it. They think it’s a good deal. They ask why they can’t have it themselves (it’s limited to children, because the state reaches the issue thru child support). BUT, these are lower income people, not college educated, and it’s icky Medicaid, so the Twitter Left don’t consider them important “influencers” or something.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: I just found this: Why Mitch McConnell is holding a vote on the Green New Deal so what you heard appears to be true, tho I can’t imagine what they might be voting on.
Here’s an analysis of the Green New Deal: There’s now an official Green New Deal. Here’s what’s in it.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
And Ohio only charges parents if they are over 150% of poverty. So it isn’t poor people. It’s low wage people. One bump above poor. The exact population who need health insurance. Those people you see waiting for health care at county fairgrounds? Those people.
I mean, this is impracticality to the point of uselessness.
laura
@Matt McIrvin: lowering the medicare qualified age would be a great start. Lots of folks would retire -me included, and free up jobs for the youngs if they had a chance to lock in affordable health care coverage.
FlipYrWhig
@gene108: I’ll take your suggestion as a friendly amendment. I really don’t get the appeal of this particular fantasy. I mean, I’m not religious and have never been religious. I could say that *if* people *were* irreligious like me, that’d be great. But I’m also not really expecting religious people to just wake up one day and say, “whoa, that was weird, what was I thinking?” Or to hear some anti-religious diatribe and think, “huh, I never thought of it that way before, now I’m convinced.” You can’t do politics by just barking about how the people who aren’t on your side yet *should* be.
@Kay: “impracticality to the point of uselessness” precisely.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
One thing I DO credit the Left with is, they know that any social program has to include the lower middle class, or it will be vulnerable politically. Democrats knew this once, but they forgot it. Unless you have the lower middle class standing in front of a poverty program, the poverty program is vulnerable. A huge factor in that is racism, but we can admit that and still plan around it. Put them in. Once they’re in it’s bulletproof.
Denying something to the lower middle class because one is focused on “equity” – bringing up the bottom- is just dumb. You won’t get the program for the poor OR the program for the middle class. What’s equitable about that?
We have a free preschool program here that is open to all comers, because it’s part of the public school. So we’re about 50% free and reduced lunch. Are we subsidizing some people who make 100k a year? Yes. They’re fucking essential – to use it and protect it. If it was exclusively for poor people it would be unpopular in this town and it never would have passed.
WaterGirl
@JPL: hen They put on my new roof, I took the dogs to doggie daycare. I couldn’t be in the house either — the whole house shook every time they shot one of those nails into the structure. Not worth it.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
So, this:
Booker is selling this as a remedy for racial inequality on wealth and assets. And as a practical matter he probably has to make it race-neutral and income based. But the other thing it does? It makes it have a shot in hell of happening.
If he had said “I can’t do this because it subsidizes lower income white people and therefore leaves the gap created by race” then he would be thinking like the Democratic Party of the last 30 years, and that’s just bad thinking.
joel hanes
This, so much this.
I’ve never understood the Democratic Party’s seeming unwillingness to attack the Republican leadership directly.
“The Iron ‘Stache” was a weak candidate, but challenging Ryan was brilliant.
Attack the leadership. Decapitate the beast.
J.D. Scholten taking on the despicable Steve King in Iowa also praiseworthy.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: It speaks to character, and that’s why people care about it.
If it’s true, I really do care that she would call the next boss to try to get someone fired after they moved on. That’s not how you build good government, and attitudes about how you treat people start at the top and trickle down.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: h my god, it’s like the chain mail thing all over again, only on twitter.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
2 years of free education or training for everyone past K-12. Will “millionaires” benefit, like centrist Democrats claim? Yeah, maybe, but they don’t go to state schools or community colleges anyway, and tens of millions of people would benefit MORE than the millionaires. Expand the free guaranteed K-12 in two directions- down to preschool and up to 2 years past 12. If you argue against that you’re also arguing against the whole concept behind public K-12 schools. Public schools definitely benefit upper middle class people. We don’t say we shouldn’t have them because of that. That’s ridiculous. ANY universal system potentially benefits better off people more. What centrist Democrats are really arguing against is “universal”.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
thank you for the links.
germy
He’s got nerve. Someone should do some “oppo research” on his military career; specifically his reason for leaving.
And then camp out outside his wife’s office “for comment”, the way they camped out outside Omar’s office.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: Yes, it is. And I apologize and say ignore it! I’m doing it for MIL points.
Uncle Cosmo
@Kay:
Happened to me pre-ACA. With preexisting conditions up the Wazoo[1] I had taken my last job primarily for the health insurance, planning to retire sometime after age 63.5 when I could charm the snake[2] & segue into Medicare at its end. Boss pinkslipped me at age 62.25. Fortunately there was a Maryland program at the time[3] for the otherwise uninsurable – high-deductible catastrophic coverage[4] that would insure[5] my retirement savings against a kazillion-$ health emergency. But I was lucky – able to afford the hit[6] & relatively close to Medicare after COBRA slithered away.
Notes: [1] “Wikipedia insists that there is a Wazoo in Washington, another one serving Kentucky and Indiana, and even a fictional one in Alabama.” You could look it up.
[2] Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) (ETA) allows employees to keep employer insurance at 110% of premiums for up to 18 months after termination.
[3] Maryland Health Insurance Program (MHIP). One of the advantages of living in a state run by Democrats!
[4] Better known as “junk insurance.”
[5] In the purest sense of the term.
[6] ~1% of my net worth over the course of coverage
MomSense
@Kay:
Medicaid for all would be better IMHO but it reeks of poor people for the lefty ? crowd – who are a lot more privileged and ridiculous than they realize.
Yutsano
If we’re talking taking back the Senate, Kansas is now an open seat. Might be worth getting on that recruiting soon as well.