Now that President Trump has criticized the “new calls to adopt socialism in this country,” Democrats and the media are already protesting that the socialist label doesn’t apply to them.
But, as The Wall Street Journal asks (and answers), what are they afraid of – the label or their own ideas – because the new Democratic agenda sure looks like government control over the means of production.
The biggest political story of 2019 is that Democrats are embracing policies that include government control of ever-larger chunks of the private American economy.
Merriam-Webster defines socialism as “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
The U.S. may not be Venezuela, but consider the Democratic agenda that is emerging from Congress and the party’s presidential contenders. You decide if the proposals meet the definition of socialism.
Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders’ plan, which has been endorsed by 16 other Senators, would replace all private health insurance in the U.S. with a federally administered single-payer health-care program. Government would decide what care to deliver, which drugs to pay for, and how much to pay doctors and hospitals. Private insurance would be banned.
As Senator Kamala Harris put it recently on CNN, “the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”
If replacing private insurance with government control isn’t socialism, what is?
The Green New Deal. This idea, endorsed by 40 House Democrats and several Democratic presidential candidates, would require that the U.S. be carbon neutral within 10 years. Non-carbon sources provide only 11% of U.S. energy today, so this would mean a complete remake of American electric power, transportation and manufacturing.
Oh, and as imagined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of this would be planned by a Select Committee For a Green New Deal. Soviet five-year plans were more modest.
A guaranteed government job for all. To assist in this 10-year transformation of society, the Green New Deal’s authors would “provide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.”
This is no longer a fringe idea. The Center for American Progress, Barack Obama’s think tank, supports a government job for everyone “to counter the effects of reduced bargaining power, technical change, globalization,” and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted her support for it as an alternative to tax reform.
A new system for corporate control. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants a new federal charter for businesses with more than $1 billion in annual revenue that would make companies answer to more than shareholders. Employees would elect 40% of directors, who would be obliged to consider “benefits” beyond returns to the owners. This radical redesign of corporate governance would give politicians and their interest groups new influence over private business decisions and assets.
Vastly higher taxes. These ideas would require much more government revenue, and Democrats are eagerly proposing ways to raise it. Mr. Sanders wants to raise the top death tax rate to 77%. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wants a new 70% tax rate on high incomes, which is supported by the Democratic intelligentsia. The House Ways and Means Committee is working on a plan to raise the payroll tax to 14.8% from 12.4% on incomes above $400,000.
Never to be outdone on the left, Ms. Warren wants a new 2% “wealth tax” on assets above $50 million and 3% above $1 billion, including assets held abroad. France recently junked its wealth tax because it was so counterproductive, and such a tax has never been levied in America. This is government confiscation merely because someone has earned or saved more money than someone else. Socialism?
These are merely the most prominent proposals. There are many others, such as Ms. Warren’s plan to set up a government-owned generic drug maker that would inevitably put private companies out of business because its cost of capital would be zero.
* * *
WSJ concludes with some even more ominous perspective, apparently fearful of the ‘boiling frog’ or ‘just the tip’ dissonance…
Some readers might think this is all so extreme it could never happen. But presidential candidates don’t propose ideas they think will hurt them politically. The leftward lurch of Democratic voters, especially the young, means the party could nominate the most left-wing presidential candidate in U.S. history. If other Democratic candidates oppose any or all of this, we’d like to hear them.
The American public deserves to have a debate about all this, lest it sleepwalk into a socialist future it doesn’t want. Credit to Mr. Trump for teeing it up.
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Classless clowns who couldn’t their own asses with both hands and torch.
People like some socialism – or do you not think that public schools, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are socialism? Trump’s line about control by government bureaucrats is spot on – witness the thought control within public schools. I expect that “free” community colleges and “Medicare for All” WILL be enacted – and fairly soon. Private health insurance won’t be banned, but most people won’t buy it – just like most people don’t send their kids to parochial schools when there’s a “free” one down the street. Why pay for schools via your property taxes and then pay tuition on top of it? Same thing will happen with Medicare for All. Many of AOC’s ideas are batshit crazy, but the appeal of “free” is almost unbeatable in the long term. Leftists will falsely claim it can all be paid for by taxing the rich – just like war hawks claim we can pay for out of control “defense” spending by supply-side nonsense.
When the health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are all but put out of business (and they soon will be), they’ll have no one to blame but themselves for insisting on colluding against and gouging the American people for decades. I’m not convinced that “Medicare for All” will be better than the clusterfuck we have now, but I’m among the growing number of people who think that it could hardly be any worse.
I can’t remember who first said it but “If you think health-care is expensive now, just wait till it’s FREE.”
P J O’Rourke
Yes, now I remember, Thanks.
govt health care–
the efficiency of the post office & the compassion of the irs —
When all else fails, (and it will) executing “normals” on an industrial scale will do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj8fP5wCy9g
Your package arrived safely. Added to my stack. Thank you.
It barely covers my rent around here lately.
Hope to catch up in July.
Thanks for posting this video. I think big Jim should let you do a movie of the month.
The “new” and “progressive ” Socialist-Democrat proposals and platforms are just the cover story and window dressing for the Evil Fucker (TM) overlord’s actual agenda.
And at the rate we are going Congress’s SOTU address could look like this in 2021:
Two minutes of hate is so cathartic.
Let’s review some of the activities that government is responsible for to see how well they work for the consumers:
1. DMV – there is an example of the government’s uber-efficiency.
2. Medicare & Veterans Health Care – that will help reduce our population.
3. Public transit – guaranteed to be the slowest method to get to your destination.
4. Highways – always congested when you want to use them because, the government planners feel highways are bad and should not be expanded.
5. Airport security – an opportunity to wait in long lines to get molested.
I could go on and on, but everyone, except the wing nut blue dems get the picture.
Putting government in charge of anything will make it inefficient, slow, unresponsive to the customer, and overly expensive. So we want to do that why?
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf
they want to put the govt in charge of EVERYTHING.
“strengthening and enforcing labor,
workplace health and safety, antidiscrimination,
and wage and hour standards across all employers, industries, and sectors”
kinda surprised there’s no TBP story thread about The Green New Deal
We wouldn’t be having conversations like this if it wasn’t for 1) diversity and 2) extreme income/wealth inequality.
AOC’s New Green Deal calls for an end to all air travel. All travel must be on trains. She wants to build railroads across the oceans.
AOC’s New Green Deal calls for : I’m the Dealer and I get all the Green(from you). Control is what all those dic(les)tators in white want.
anon,
the problem is that you’re only half right–
many of these people,both in/out of govt are true believers & they need the power to implement their ideas–
Ok, socialism sucks. We all know that. Except all the talk against it is bullshit since Ron Paul left congress because he meant it and Trump doesn’t.
“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” – Donald Trump
“I am also proud to be the first president to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave.” – Also Donald Trump, in the same speech.
We WILL get socialism. It’s baked into the cake.
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf
they want to put the govt in charge of EVERYTHING.
“strengthening and enforcing labor,
workplace health and safety, antidiscrimination,
and wage and hour standards across all employers, industries, and sectors”
kinda surprised there’s no TBP story thread about The Green New Deal
The existing revenues do not come close to covering existing spending and yet they want to make changes that will more than double existing spending. Do the math; it’s not going to happen.
They’ll just raise income taxes on white people to 214% of our incomes. It’ll be fine.
We are far down the socialist rabbit hole now, how about the 700 billion Military budget?
Socialism?
You bet.
The entire budget is Socialism, except for the rapacious interest payments to god knows who, that’s capitalism. That is not going away or unsurprisingly, being addressed by any of these “Socialist”.
Straight from the horse’s mouth:
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf
This woman is both dangerously stupid and religiously zealous in the pursuit of said stupidity.
Ohh, to be a 30 yr 2nd grader(or there abouts). Seriously, she is so stupid that anybody taking her serious in a year or so makes about as much sense as Hillary be crowned Miss America or RBG running a marathon or Slick willy turning himself in or Rosie losing 200 lbs or Pelosi tearing down her own wall…
I hate to say this, but seriously: Look on the bright side. Trump has given us a 4 year reprieve to get our familial financial houses in order. In my case, he has given me time to agri-engineer a field of rock into a productive heirloom apple orchard. There is ZERO chance this turkey isn’t going down. Humans are too stupid to use history as the catalog of solutions that it is, but getting anxious about it just affects Platformers’ health.
I owe Quinn back-pay for last year…I threw everything that wasn’t bolted down into the aforementioned terraforming project. Now that my wife and sister are in remission, it’s time to refocus on the honey locust/black locust perimeter/living fence. Great to keep mongrel deer out…as well as Occasional Cortexes.
God bless, folks. And thanks Jim for everything you have done for Liberty. I’ll set aside some Junaluska apples for you every year you want them.
Is there a lake around there?
Where did you get your apple seeds? I have been intending to contact a heirloom orchard in Oregon to buy a crate of mixed apples, pears, etc, just to get the seeds out of them. If I could just buy seeds that are guaranteed to be heirloom, non-hybrid, that would put me way ahead of the game.
Problem with apple seeds my friend is that they aren’t true to the cultivar you plant. You need to either graft them yourself onto good rootstock for your area (look at Geneva and EMLA/MM rootstocks) or get someone else to do it. These are all wonderful, local/small farm sources, and GOOD people.
http://bighorsecreekfarm.com
http://maplevalleyorchards.com
https://applesearch.org
https://www.orangepippintrees.com
I’m devoted to preserving rare but tasty cultivars. If you just want seed, I bet you could find someone local.
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/socialisms-victims-warn-us-bernie-sanders-your-enemy-dont-fall-it-people-are
I would be curious how the Canadian model works. I have yet to meet a Canadian who isn’t happy with their healthcare system. I wonder how much tax is collected to pay for it.? Our current insurance model is unaffordable for many. When something doesn’t work for many people it’s time to do something different. The rest of the socialist stuff I could do without. Maybe a non-government model with people able to pay in massive groups?
Who knows. But what I *do* know is that, in 2019, the several states are unable to 1) Constitutionally declare a war; 2) Win a war; 3) Declare peace; 4) Run a net neutral budget; 5) Maintain infrastructure; and an endless list of other things that would take all night to enumerate. If they can’t perform those basic tasks, then why even ruminate as to their possible success with Medicare for all when Denninger has shown it will (at best) be insolvent by 2024?
from what i understand the canadian system is like any other socialized system,slow but ok until you have a serious issue–
my wife is from germany,where they have socialized medicine but they can still buy supplemental policies & can go outside the system completely if you’re willing to pay for it–
The Canadian model doesn’t work. Let me introduce myself as the first Canadian you now know who isn’t happy with their healthcare system. In 1998 when I needed an ACL repair, I tried to alert me surgeon to the fact that my own tendons were too elastic to be used as donor tissue and asked about cadaver tissue. “We are not allowed to use cadaver tissue is Canada” was his dismissive, and as it turns out, factually incorrect response. The result was a surgical repair that failed within 8 months post op, and then the “system” refused to repair it again because osteoporosis had set in and at age 38 I was not longer considered “priority” for what was considered an “athletic” requirement.
In ’00 when I filed a complaint with the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons about the mistreatment I received, it was rejected outright. There is no ability to sue for medial malpractice in Canada for the vast majority of covered treatments.
Fast forward 20 years – of which the last 10 have been excruciatingly painful – that knee now needs a FULL replacement; and I actually qualify as medically disabled. But the current system is so overburdened that wait times for surgery – especially osteo-surgery – are measured in years, not months.
Walk into any clinic or testing lab in a major Canadian city and you will see the same sight – hoards of new immigrants, none working, all with their countless kids, waiting for their “free” treatment alongside people who have been tax-gouged all their lives to pay for a system that has only pushed them to the back of the queue as they age. This is a system provided by income taxes that are, on average, 20% higher that what they would be without socialized medicine (not that any of those newcomers pay it). But still no coverage for drugs, dental care, or even for many standard tests. And countless people are literally dying waiting for treatment, a result that is only worsening with the ageing population.
Socialized medicine does not work. Especially a system designed when there were 9 workers per retiree instead of the 5 we have now. God help us when that ratio becomes 3 in another 15 years.
And what was the opinion of the WSJ on TARP? The Republican’s version of socialism.