"The only socialistic policy I see being pushed by those on the "far left" (Sanders or Warren) is Medicare For All. IF it was financially feasible I would support it 100%. No one is close to pushing for government takeover of private business which is REAL socialism. This is simply fear-mongering by Trump and his supporters."
I think you and I are probably on much the same side, but Far-left? "Medicare For All" which is just the current US name for universal healthcare insurance? Really?
Can't afford it? You mean like every other advanced industrial nation on earth and supported by Presidents going back to Roosevelt, Truman and that "far-left" guy, Nixon? See his prescription -
https://khn.org/news/nixon-proposal/
Now that said, I prefer "Medicare for all (who want it)" but strongly believe that we need universal healthcare insurance of some sort at some level to maintain and economic edge. Sick and unhealthy people just cannot work productively or start new businesses. T
those who retire because of poor health or die just cannot work at all degrading our workforce. I don't believe in just legislating private health insurance out of existence and think that competition in some areas of healthcare is probably good and healthy. I think a phased transition and private insurance for elective, cosmetic and cutting edge medicine is probably a good idea.
The thought that we can't afford universal healthcare or healthcare insurance/single payer is just dumb and that is a polite way to say it. We spend $7300 per capita for healthcare that is overall substandard compared to $5300 for all other OECD countries on average where some have vastly better overall healthcare. Also, we spend 17.2 percent of GDP, compared to just 8.9 percent for the OECD median so saying we can't afford it makes absolutely no sense.
LB