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WASHINGTON In the wake of the Republicanfailure to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Friday, leading figures in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are rallying behind a single-payer health insurance and a raft of other bold reforms.

These lawmakers and grassroots leaders have long believed that the problems plaguing theAffordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are rooted in the original health care laws attempt to accommodate, rather than gradually replace, the private, for-profit health insurance system.

Now that efforts to eliminate the law wholesale are effectively dead, they are again arguing that the best way to improve the countrys health care system is to confront the power of corporate health care providers more directly.

We have got to have the guts to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies and move forward toward a Medicare for all, single-payer program, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on MSNBCs All In with Chris Hayes on Friday night. And Ill be introducing legislation shortly to do that.

Sanders added on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday that he would absolutely seek President Donald Trumps cooperation on expanding Medicare and lowering prescription drug prices.

Even before the Republicans withdrew their Obamacare repeal bill, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee and a close Sanders ally, previewed this messageat a rally in defense of Obamacare on Thursday.

Dont just be satisfied with defeating Trumpcare set your sights on creating real Medicare for all! he told a cheering crowd of hundreds of activists. Ellison is a co-sponsor of a Medicare for all bill in the House.

Representatives of several major progressive organizations the Working Families Party, the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, Credo, Social Security Works and the National Nurses United all echoed this push in conversations with The Huffington Post on Friday and Saturday.

The problem is the insurance companies, Big Pharma theyre gonna come back and use the chaos to their advantage, predicted Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson. If Democrats go with a half-a-loaf policy, Republicans are going to blame them for the failures of Big Pharma.They have to immediately pivot to expanding Medicare.

During the debate over repeal, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) used some of his time during a Budget Committee hearing to note that if Trump wanted to follow through on his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something terrific, he could fall back on an idea Trump himself endorsed in a 2000 book: single-payer.

On Monday, Khanna said that now is the moment to drive the single-payer message home. To resist Trump, we need to play offense and not just defense, he told HuffPost.

As I pointed out in the Budget Committee hearing on Trumpcare a few weeks ago, Donald Trump supported a single payer system modeled after Canada in 2000 in his book [The America We Deserve], Khanna went on. He knows that is the only system that would fulfill his promise of more benefits, more coverage, and less costs. We should have every Democrat quoting Trump on a single-payer system as a mantra, and support Senator Sanders and Congressman Welch in their vision for Medicare for All, or at least, a public option. Senator Sanders is the leader of the Democratic Party currently in offering a conviction-based, affirmative vision. We should follow his direction.

Notwithstanding the support of the influential groups for the proposal and according to a May 2016 Gallup poll even a majority of the American people, Medicare-for-all legislation is a non-starter in the current Congress. Single-payer health insurance still lacks support from many, if not most, Democrats, let alone from the Republican lawmakers who control both chambers.

But the proactive strategy speaks to increasing confidence among progressives that if they stick to their ideals and build a grassroots movement around them, they will ultimately move the political spectrum in their direction.

It does take time for social change, said Chuck Idelson, communications director of National Nurses United, a 150,000-person labor union that has long advocated for a single-payer health insurance system.

NNU is partnering with Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress on an online petition campaign demanding that Democrats back Medicare for all. The union is also advocating for a state level single-payer plan that is making its way through the California legislature.

We didnt end slavery overnight, Idelson said. It took from Seneca Falls in 1848 til 1920 until women won the right to vote. But they only won it by building a movement.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that activists around the country urged their representatives over the weekend to get behind a single-payer program.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In the meantime, a potential benefit of this ambitious approach is whats known as shifting the Overton Window a political science term for the narrow range of acceptable political views at a given moment in time.

By adopting a position that is considered extreme by contemporary standards, politicians and activists can make more attainable policy goals start to seem reasonable by comparison.

That phenomenon already seems to be working in progressives favor.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the only one of Sanders Senate colleagues to endorse his presidential bid, discussed the possibility of lowering the Medicare eligibility age or empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices in his statement on the Republican bills collapse.

There are plenty of ideas already on the table that would make health care more affordable for working families, from a public option, to prescription drug negotiations, to offering older Americans the chance to buy into Medicare, Merkley said on Friday. Im happy to work with anyone, from either side of the aisle, to explore these or any other ideas that would improve health care for working Americans.

Lowering the Medicare eligibility age from its current level of 65 is a very interesting idea, because of the positive financial effect it would have on the Obamacare insurance exchanges, said Austin Frakt, a health economist for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

By allowing the oldest exchange participants to enroll in Medicare, lowering the Medicare age would relieve the health insurance marketplaces of some of their costliest customers, said Frakt, who also has academic posts at Boston University and Harvard.

It would reduce the premiums in those markets, he predicted. (Frakt noted, however, that absent measures to offset the cost of the additional beneficiaries, the change would increase Medicares financial burden.)

Social Security Works Lawson praised the idea as an incremental step toward Medicare for all.

Start by lowering the age to 62 and get it down to zero, he said.

Republicans, meanwhile, believe they can score points against Democrats on the issue.

We arent even 3 months into the 2018 cycle and House Democrats have already begun calling for a single-payer healthcare system, said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in an email to reporters Monday.

Obamacare is collapsing as a result of [its] top-down, government centered approach and the Democrats only answer is more government, Hunt went on. The question remains, how many other Democrats will join the chorus to appease the activist base of the Party thats clamoring for far-left policies?

Another progressive policy gaining mainstream traction is legislation permitting the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, where the existing single-payer system keeps prices lower. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was one of several Democratic senators to endure heavy criticism in January for helping block a resolution supporting drug importation. In late February, Booker became a co-sponsor of legislation Sanders introduced that would legalize prescription drug importation from Canada and other countries.

Trumptalked about getting tough with pharmaceutical companies over the price of prescription drugs as recently as early January.

But he has remained silent on the matter since his inauguration, including the 17-day period when he was trying to pass House Republicans Obamacare repeal bill. Whats more, the ordeal cast serious doubt on Trumps willingness to take on the GOPs ultraconservatives, who no doubt would oppose any form of government intervention to reduce drug prices.

Trump now claims he is counting on Democrats to negotiate over Obamacare on his terms, since, in his telling, the law is on the brink of collapse.

Obamacares insurance exchange markets have major problems in some states and regions, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office characterized them as stable overall.

Still, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested in a CNN interview on Friday night that Democrats would be open to working with Trump and congressional Republicans on reforming the law.

Were not gloating that they failed. Were sad that they wont work with us to improve Obamacare, he said.

Murshed Zaheed, political director of Credo, warned Democratic leaders that any Democratic efforts to work with Republicans would not get any help from grassroots groups like his.

If Democrats want to push their version of so-called moderate proposals good luck to them, Zaheed said. I dont think anybody should be under any illusion that Schumer or [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi will get anything from collaborating with the right-wing extremists that control Congress.

Ryan Grim contributed reporting. This story was updated Monday to include comments from Khanna and Hunt.

See the article here:
Bernie Sanders, Top Progressives Announce New 'Medicare For All' Push - Huffington Post

With the Republicans failing to even bring their disastrous Obamacare replacement legislation to a vote, Paul Ryan was effectively silenced on one of the only issues hes discussed for the last seven years. This is bad news for Ryans future and even worse news for average Republicans. But Progressives are already looking to be in great shape headed into the 2018 midterms, and they can capitalize on the GOPs failures. Ring of Fires Farron Cousins discusses this.

Transcript of the above video:

This past Friday, Paul Ryan and the republicans and Donald Trump and everybody who has been pushing for a repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act were dealt a devastating blow when the republicans couldnt even muster enough people to vote for their disgusting health care replacement bill. While this is a massive failure for Donald Trump, its a massive failure for the republican party, nobody is going to feel that failure more than Paul Ryan.

Heres why. Paul Ryan has done nothing but talk about repealing Obama Care, coming up with a republican plan for over seven years. Every campaign that Paul Ryan has run since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act has been against the Affordable Care Act. That was his only campaign talking point ever. Thats how he became Speaker of the House, by telling everyone that John Boehner wasnt tough enough on Obama Care. He would be tough. Put him in position. Hes going to make it right. He failed. He had one thing that he wanted to do as Speaker of the House and he couldnt even get enough people to vote on it.

They couldve voted, but it wouldve failed because they didnt have enough republican votes. He didnt even bother. He gave up before he even really tried. Donald Trump stepped in, tried to sell this bill to republicans and he failed. This is Paul Ryans failure first and foremost. This is the only issue this man has been talking about, the only issue hes been Tweeting about, for years, and he couldnt even do it.

What this means is that 2018 is going to be a very bad year for Paul Ryan, because in addition to trashing Obama Care for years, hes also, in general, trashed President Obama. In fact, in a Tweet this morning, he said, Were going to work on repealing some of these confusing labor laws of Barack Obama. All of the responses to that were: What is your obsession with this man? Hes not the president anymore. Why dont you work on leading? Thats not going to work as a campaign strategy for Paul Ryan in 2018. He wants to continue to bash President Obama, to bash Obama Care, thinking that this is going to get him reelected somehow, but its not. The American public knows that the failure of the American Healthcare Act, the republican plan, was not because of democrats, it was because of republicans. It was because of Paul Ryan. It was because of Donald Trump.

You cannot run on a platform saying that this was the democrats fault, even though Donald Trump is out there expressly saying that today. Thats not the truth. You cannot run trashing a president who left office two years ago and expect to continue to win. How do we know this? Because the democrats tried that in 2010 and it didnt work. You cant continue trashing the old and ignoring the fact that your party is not doing a very good job leading, but Paul Ryan is going to keep at it. Hes going to keep talking about Obama. Hes going to keep talking about Obama Care. Hes going to keep talking repeal and replace. In 2018, if he doesnt change his strategy, Paul Ryan will be the one repealed and replaced.

Excerpt from:
Paul Ryan Is Finished, And 2018 Is Looking Good For Progressives - The Ring of Fire Network

Our Revolution St. Joseph, a progressive political organization, hosted a rally in front of the Buchanan County Courthouse on Thursday against the scheduled GOP vote on the American Health Care Act.

About 20 community members were in attendance at the impromptu protest, and Derek Evans, the co-founder of Our Revolution St. Joseph, said one of their main concerns with the new health care bill is that it would leave 24 million Americans uninsured by 2026 if it replaced the Affordable Care Act (according to the Congressional Budget Office).

The figure of how that is going to affect the 6th congressional district, Sam Graves district, is almost 40,000 people who will be at risk of losing their health insurance, he said. You know, I dont know if Sam Graves is wavering, but an article said that he was uncommitted. He didnt come out and say unequivocally yes or no.

Evans said the group has a three-fold mission: Push policies and ballot initiates that fall in line with the Our Revolution platform; field, support and endorse progressive candidates at every level of government; and get more people involved in the political process.

Whether its protests or whether its those town halls, those sort of direct-action things are working, he said. There are multiple Republicans who have come out and said, I dont think we are going to get this passed because we have a number of legislators whose constituents are angry. Their constituents have made their voice known that they do not want the American Health Care Act. They do want to keep ACA.

House Speaker Paul Ryan met with President Donald Trump before the anticipated health care vote Friday to inform him that they did not have the votes, and around 3 p.m. EDT, the President accepted his recommendation that Republicans pull the health care bill.

Speaker Ryan said the GOP majority is planning to move on from health care to focus on other priorities, and that they will be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.

Catherine Edwards, the Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Area Agencies of Aging, said she believes in what Obamacare is trying to do.

Weve worked very hard with the Affordable Care Act, she said. And in the past couple of years, weve seen the uninsured rate in Missouri drop by about 250,000 people, which is significant. Because Missouri did not expand Medicaid, were finding a large pool of people who fall in what we call the Medicaid gap. If we had expanded Medicaid, wed be able to cover those as well, and wed see another drop.

Excerpt from:
Local progressives protest American Health Care Act - News-Press Now

Co-authored with your friendly neighborhood policy wonk, Brandon McKoy.

Ever since last November, we have seen an upsurge in progressives calling for a Tea Party-style political activist agenda, encouraging those upset with the results of the election to speak up at town halls, run for office, and lobby their elected officials, among other things. Even though these efforts are noble and important, they are not enough to make lasting change. Taking lessons from the Tea Party playbook will become a futile exercise if progressives dont understand history and circumstance and do more.

Progressives arent fighting to reinstate progressive policies, they are fighting for this country to finally implement them. For instance, we are the only advanced nation on earth without a national paid leave policy. Progressives across the country are working to change that.

Currently, there seems to be a spectrum between running for office and engaging with your elected officials. It is critical to understand that there are things across that spectrum which are just as worthwhile. And it is what progressives do with these opportunities that will decide just how successful they are in securing their vision of America. We have a few ideas.

First, there should be an apparatus to train and teach folks how to successfully pursue and administer campaign staff positions. Lately, there has been much ado about getting progressives to run for office. On the one hand, it seems intuitiveinstead of advocating for policy changes, just make those decisions yourself. On the other hand, simply electing progressive candidates is no guarantee that they'll support and enact progressive policies. Thats why theres reason to doubt that passively electing qualified progressives will be enough to undo harmful policies - especially those that hurt marginalized people. Rather, helping people understand the mechanics of political fundraising and training them on the ways opposition research is conducted will be central to future success. Politics is like football and its true that progressives need a deep bench, but they need more than just quarterbacks.

Second, take policy analysis to the streets. Both of us attended policy school and, while some of those lessons arent worth the price tag, they were extremely valuable for us, especially as we needed the knowledge and network to conduct research on budget and tax policy. For folks who dont have access to policy school or even the desire to attend, the critical basics of policy analysis canand should beunderstood by more activists and advocates. If possible, auditing or enrolling in policy courses should be a priority. The more that policy details and analyses are understood, the more effective advocates will be in fighting for progressive policies.

Third, progressives need to read and share more research papers. Its not that everyone should become an expertits that folks should have access to factual information. There are plenty of listservs that send around talking points, but they send them without a more in-depth understanding of the issue at hand. Seriously, anyone can spout talking points about the importance of increasing the minimum wage, but advocates are more likely to be effective if they can reference the plethora of research showing that the minimum wage increases the standard of living, creates more jobs, and helps grow the economy.

Finally, progressives need to give people options to get involvedespecially options that pay. Over-emphasizing certain ways to get engaged, like writing letters to your elected officials, may lead to political participation fatigue. Its critical for progressives to encourage people to work for public service whether as a legislative assistant or a staffer in a government agency. It goes without saying that its much easier to do good in service of the public interest when its your day job, and few would disagree that government-related staff could use more people who actually believe in the ability of government to have a positive impact on the lives of everyday people.

This past Friday can be considered a victory for progressives, since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal and replacement plan has, for the time being, failed. But its important to remember that the ACA is full of ideas that originated in conservative circles. Thats why progressives shouldnt become prisoners of this moment. For them, complacency is not an option, and neither is grandiosity. The real work starts now.

Read more here:
Combating Tunnel Vision: Why Progressives Need to do More Than Protest and Run for Office - Huffington Post

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Theres one sure-fire way to get into heaven . but itll cost you, Jim Gearhart reminds us in the latest installment of his new podcast, The Jim Gearhart Show.

Ever since his return to New Jersey 101.5, Jims been thinking a lot about the progressive movement and its response to president Donald Trump. And while he thinks liberalism is a perfectly valid way of thinking about the world, progressivism, he says, is something altogether and even dangerous. In fact, he says,the progressives remind him of a certain devlisih figure.

The clip above is justpart of the latest episodeof the new Jim Gearhart Show podcast to get the full thing, subscribe with your favorite podcasting app for iPhones, Android devices or your computer:

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Love podcasts? Also check out Forever 39, Annette and Megans new podcast about turning 40 and loving life along the way. This week, they remind us: Youve only got 7 seconds to make a first impression. Guess what they notice first?

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How to get into Heaven (And why progressives like Satan) Jim ... - New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio