Harry Reid on 'Medicare for All': 'Not a chance in hell it would pass'

[brooklynite]

The Hill

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) signature "Medicare for All" health care plan ahead of Wednesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas.

While Reid said during an interview with ABC News's Rick Klein that he thinks "the world of Bernie Sanders," he called the progressive senator's health care plan "impractical."

"There’s not a chance in hell it would pass," Reid said in the podcast interview.

Reid has spoken out about Medicare for All in the past, telling Vice last year he didn't think the plan could pass and that Democrats should instead focus on strengthening the Affordable Care Act.

Well, what does he know...

[guillaumeb]

1. The current dysfunctional system is very healthy.

Well, the industry profits are very healthy.

USA #37 is not a very inspiring slogan.

[brooklynite]

7. Can you point out a candidate who supports keeping "the current dysfunctional system"?

[guillaumeb]

8. They do not frame it that way.

But any approach that allows the healthcare industries to control access and control prices cannot fix the real problems with the US system.

And these industries will fight any attempt at changing the system. Witness their spending to demonize the idea of MFA.

And their propaganda that a single payer system will be more expensive than the current system, when all of the evidence from every country with a single payer system shows the exact opposite.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Every civilized country has something like it.

We're not a civilized country because we keep listening to these assholes.

[NJCher]

3. right

I'm pretty sure he's out of touch, possibly suffering some old age thinking problems.

Still, ya' gotta' love the naysayers. Going back to the beginnings of Bernie's campaign for the presidency, he has moved mountains.

[HarlanPepper]

9. Uh, he HAS CANCER

It’s not old age thinking problems. What a moronic comment. And he did more for this country in the senate than Bernie could have dreamed of.

[NJCher]

10. it is your comment that is moronic

cancer and old age thinking problems are not mutually exclusive. One can have both.

[HarlanPepper]

11. Your comment was disgusting.

But given the candidate involved I’m not surprised. Seems to be a thing.

It’s not a Harry Reid’s fault you don’t know how majorities in the senate work.

[NJCher]

14. awww

Guess you aren't aware that people like Harry Reid have been in the frying pan so long that such comments roll right off their back. Anyway, who are you to set yourself up as the defender of Harry Reid? Harry Reid doesn't need you looking after him. I'm quite sure he can take care of himself.

Prejudice much?

[HarlanPepper]

17. When you make a point coherency is a good start.

I’ve got no fucking idea what you’re bleating about here.

[NJCher]

15. also

Where do you get that I said it was Harry Reid's fault? Maybe you have a reading comprehension problem?

[HarlanPepper]

16. Maybe you should gain an understanding of how our government works

President Bernie, if by some miracle he beat Trump, would need a super majority in the senate to pass his m4a. He’s not going to get that. None of the candidates are going to be working with a super majority if elected. That was Reid’s point. He made that point because he was in the senate for a long time and knows how it works. Not because he’s a sick, senile old man, as you are inferring.

So not only was your comment disgusting, it was comically uninformed.

[jalan48]

4. No we can't!

[Dan]

5. I'm beginning to think that we need TERM LIMITS

And kick all their asses out after two terms, D and R.

Let’s get back to a government of the people by the people.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Only if you can term limit the lobbiests, staffers, etc.

Otherwise, the elected officials will always be the newbies and they'll always be at the mercy of the more experienced.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. It. Does. Not. Matter.

I'm not saying that the future of health care in America doesn't mater, I'm saying that the chance of Medicare for All passing through the next Congress doesn't matter. But for starters, assuming Sanders becomes President, that shuffles the deck completely. The influence that Bernie Sanders has today as one member of the Senate Democratic Caucus is germane so long as he continues to be just one member of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate. Any President has chips to play that only become his or hers after they win that office, but even more to the point, if Bernie Sanders actually wins the Presidential elections suddenly a lot of former calculations would have to be revisited about what is and is not possible in America today.

But the even bigger point is this. President Sanders would not repeal Obamacare before he had the votes to replace it with something better. He is a Democratic candidate for President, not the Republican one. Since when do Democrats stop fighting for social and economic justice anytime the current political lineup denies them the ability to implement it?

Do we have the votes today to pass a Constitutional Amendment to over rule "Citizens United"? No? Then why do Democrats still advocate for doing just that? You work toward an ambitious goal by making the case for that ambitious goal and doing the hard work to make progress toward that goal. Would Gay Marriage have received national support twenty years ago? Does that mean that Gay advocates were foolish to keep pushing for it, for making the fundamental case that justice ultimately required that outcome?

I want a President who fights for what is best and then locks in whatever advances are possible in the short term without surrendering the vision that we should all believe in. When it finally came to it, Bernie Sanders - long time advocate for Single Payer Universal Health Care, voted for the Affordable Care Act. He voted for it even though the Public Option was stripped out of the final version. He locked in an advance and continues to fight for something even better. That is my kind of leadership.

[totodeinhere]

13. It probably won't pass right away. But if President Sanders keeps plugging away at it and

if we can take back control of the Senate then it may well pass before Bernie's term ends. I know those are a of if's but I do think it's the right thing to do and we need to try.

[BeckyDem]

18. Wrong answer. ALL Dems should support it.