Tag: healthcare

Are the Democrats Committing Political Suicide Moving Too Far to the Left?

We begin the concerns expressed by political strategists and pundits that following the first two debates, the Democratic presidential candidates on the ascendency are taking the party too far to the left as the centrists like Joe Biden appear to flounder while others like Governor Bullock of Montana were not able to make it onto the crowded stage. We will speak with an economic advisor to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Robert Hockett, a Professor of Law at Cornell Law School who helped Elizabeth Warren write the Accountable Capitalism Act and Ocasio Cortez write the Green New Deal and the Loan Shark Prevention Act. He joins us to discuss whether the Democrats are committing political suicide by ignoring the center of the party and pandering to the left. With former Governor Hickenlooper and former Congressman Delaney advocating for more centrist policies and Joe Biden being run over by Kamala Harris to the point many are writing him off as roadkill, we will assess whether the dream ticket of Harris and Buttigieg liberal Democrats are envisioning will fly in fly-over country. If Joe Biden, who has always had a solid lead in the polls, has lost his mojo and a Biden-Harris ticket is no longer viable, then where is the opening for Elizabeth Warren who appears to be gaining popularity at Bernie Sanders’ expense?

Do the Democrats Have a Healthcare Problem?

Then we examine further the bold move Elizabeth Warren has taken by pointing out that the private health insurance industry are the wrong people to be providing healthcare since their business model is to make as much money as possible from premiums and pay out as little as possible for healthcare. Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent for The Week where his latest article is “The Democratic debates had a health-care problem” joins us to discuss the existential threat Elizabeth Warren poses to the powerful insurance lobby with an overflowing war chest that will be deployed against Warren to prevent the American people from learning how the rest of the advanced countries deliver healthcare to their people without the unnecessary and parasitic layer of the middlemen of big insurance.

Trump and Kim’s Photo Op on the DMZ

Then finally, with President Trump having had a 50 minute meet-and-greet with Kim Jong-un on the DMZ with a brief excursion into North Korea, we speak with Charles Armstrong, a professor of History and Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and author of “The Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World”. He joins us to discuss how Trump admitted the brief meeting was about him and Kim looking good and since Jared and Ivanka were featured in photo ops at the G-20 and Ivanka sat across the negotiating table from Xi Jinping, we assess whether this Trump family-centered diplomacy is way around the U.S. government allowing the Trumps and Kushners to make deals with dictators and possibly make some money on the side.