Pfft. Howard Dean is dead to me.

[Cleita]

He's dissing Bernie's vision of a national single payer health care system stating Hillary Clinton has the practical solution. Hillary's health care system is what we have now with the ACA, warts and all. Medicare has been proven to work since it was signed into law. Bernie wants to improve it and extend it to all. Howard called Bernie the visionary and Hillary the pragmatist. He said he's chosen the pragmatist.

Single payer is not a pipe dream. It has already been proven to work in many forms and countries including ours. To say it's visionary, like attempting to go to Mars, is very disingenuous of him. I'm done with him.

[MissDeeds]

1. I couldn't even watch him on Chris Hayes

What a sellout. It grieves me to think I ever respected him.

[Cleita]

2. And Chris did not push back on him either.

Both have sold out to the Man or should it be Mammon?

[swilton]

3. Couldn't agree with you more

[mhatrw]

4. Such bullshit. Dean himself ran on single payer being the most

rational solution all those ears ago. I'm so pissed at him right now that I could scream.

[JonLeibowitz]

13. He's got you covered there on the scream. n/t

[Autumn]

5. It's not practical, it's more of the same and it's not working for many.

I'm done with democrats who want to maintain the status quo.

[SmittynMo]

6. Protect the oligarchs

It's one looking out for the other.

[delrem]

7. Speaking as a Canadian, and abstract from US primary politics:

Clinton and Dean are wrong.

If they claim to stand for social and economic justice, they're just plain wrong.
A single payer universal gov't guaranteed health care plan is essential for social and economic justice. Period.
It is only through such a system that the most destitute can survive and exercise their right to life. It is that basic.

We are no longer primitives.

[zentrum]

9. ^This^

[SoapBox]

8. ...lost all respect for him.

He occupies a spot on my, Never to be Trusted Again Entrenched Establishment list.

Done with you Dean.

[slumcamper]

10. BUT single payer is not good enough!

We need to improve the Medicare system to alleviate the burden of cost for so-called "supplemental" insurance. My parents pay nearly $800 a month for such insurance. It's necessary. Had they not had it they would have experienced financial ruin last year due to a sudden serious illness my father experienced. While he overcame it, the uncovered costs of treatment--including 40 hyperbaric treatments and periodic hospitalization--would have cost nearly $250,000. My father is a retired Iowa factory worker with a modest retirement annuity that yields $10,000 a year, at best. So..."Medicare for all" is not good enough. Not only do we need that, but we need BETTER MEDICARE FOR ALL. We need to END the current status quo of insurance companies as scavengers upon half-measure public policy. We can be better than we are.

That said, I agree with the principle.

[winter is coming]

17. Well said. n/t

[eridani]

18. Medicare would be changed as well, starting with the elimination of deductibles.

Also, there would be price negotiations with pharma, hospitals and medical providers.

See HR 1200 and HR 676.

[raindaddy]

11. Easy to imagine the conversation...

Dean..... When Debbie Wasserman Shultz gets her cabinet appointment can I has my old job back?

[glinda]

12. Howie maybe is seeing his VP position opportunity shrinking.....

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. "He said he's chosen the pragmatist."

That talking point is past it's freshness date.

[blackspade]

15. What is wrong with being visionary?

Visionaries get shit done. Pragmatists maintain the status quo.
I'll take vision.

[JDPriestly]

16. I have lived, I repeat lived in four countries that had single payer.

They each have cheaper insurance than we do. I had great insurance in those countries, and virtually everyone was insured..

The system in each country was a bit different. They all worked for me.

Here, our insurance costs including co-pays are too high compared to our incomes, and many people remain uninsured although Obamacare has improved the numbers of people who are insured.

When Howard Dean, Hillary and all those who are now criticizing Bernie's plan for single payer have lived in countries with single payer insurance and still think that, when they compare single payer with Obamacare, they think Obamacare is best, then maybe I will take them seriously.

Fact is, Howard Dean, Hillary, etc. do not know what it is like to have single payer insurance, to never have to worry about owing a lot of impossible-to-pay money to stay alive. So their opinions are, compared to mine, and in my opinion, irrelevant. They are not based on personal experience or fact.

Let's advocate for the best. Single payer is much better in my experienced opinion than Obamacare. Obamacare is better than what we used to have, but we can afford single payer.

Health care is not a choice. It is a necessity for life. It's ridiculous to pay more for it than we have to.

[Betty Karlson]

19. Dean is very disappointing off late.

Who or what has gotten to him?

[lostnfound]

20. It's sad. I was a pretty big fan of his in 2008.

[Betty Karlson]

23. Money money money - the root of all wrongs is greed. eom

[Pastiche423]

21. It is time to turn my

Howard Dean for America bear into a Bernie Bear.

I am so sad and disappointed in Howard. In 2004 I was so excited to find someone I wanted to vote for. The Dean scream bullshit threw me into a blue funk.


The 50 State Strategy he incorporated as DNC chairman was phenomenal, but I'm elated that Bernie picked up the strategy and ran with it without the help of the DNC.

[Zorra]

22. Take away his millions, and let him learn the real meaning of pragmatism.

Like, "Should I pay the rent, or get my broken ankle looked at by a doctor" type pragmatism.

[emsimon33]

24. If I received on more "Vote for Hillary" email from him during the DFA vote...

I was going to get a restraining order!

I won a dinner with him from DFA in Washington DC. I had to reroute myself on the way back from London to LAX to end the flight in DC. It cost me money that I didn't want to charge to DFA. Dean was late to the dinner (which I found rude) and he frankly was not very interesting.

I now know why: He sold out for the highest dollar.

MSNBC needs to introduce him as a lobbyist for the health insurance industry as well as former head of the DNC.

He is a grave disappointment!

[Live and Learn]

25. Yep. Ex-Deniac here. Very disappointed. nt

[mucifer]

26. Dean's voting record was never as good as Bernie's.

I think our guy is better this time

[Kalidurga]

27. I was never a Dean fan.

The only reason I support most Democrats is because they are not Republicans. Dean is an excellent example of why I have this attitude.

[Peregrine Took]

28. When I think of us, retirees trudging through a ft of snow in Davenport. Iowa.

On all those days we drove from Chicago, ringing doorbells, giving out literature...and the houses were like 1/4 of a block apart...unshoveled snow, too, until dark.
Driving into neighborhoods we had no idea who lived there..some were all rethuglicon (!) and the campaign people still sent us out there to ring doorbells. All for Howard.
We bought into the whole idealistic package, house partiy, rallies, shirts, bumper stickers donations, etc...and got out hearts broken (thanks DNC) ....now we get Howard 2.0...all slick and a mouthpiece for Hillary the Millionaire hawk.