(CNN)The American political debate over health care is absurd. Americans pay twice as much as any other nation for health care, and then are told daily that they "can't afford" to switch to a lower-cost system very similar to those of Canada and Europe. If President Donald Trump and the plutocratic Republican party were the only ones carrying this ridiculous message, it would be understandable. Yet this message is also coming from media pundits aligned with the Democratic Party and the most conservative wing of the party.

Let's be clear on the central point. Medicare for All, as first proposed by Bernie Sanders and endorsed by Elizabeth Warren, is affordable precisely because it is cheaper, much cheaper, than the current system.

WASHINGTON — The country’s largest nurses’ union will endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for president this week, a significant boost to his campaign from a major ally in the fight for his signature health care proposal.

The union, National Nurses United, fervently supported Mr. Sanders’s last bid for the White House in 2016, and its members have been significant players in Democratic politics since then, showing up in red T-shirts to support Mr. Sanders’s progressive allies in intraparty battles. They have also canvassed neighborhoods in swing congressional districts, urging voters to get behind “Medicare for all,” Mr. Sanders’s plan for a nationalized health insurance system.

“We know what we have done and what it takes to bring about fundamental change, and it’s massive organizing and a mass movement,” said Jean Ross, a co-president of the union. “Of all the candidates, Bernie is the one who understands that.”

The union plans to formally endorse Mr. Sanders on Friday at a news conference in Oakland, Calif.

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Biden: I Told Bernie Sanders Not To Accept PAC Money, That People Wouldn't Trust You
Posted By Ian Schwartz
On Date January 6, 2018

In an interview with PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff, former Vice President Joe Biden revealed he advised 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that he shouldn't take any money from political action committees, "because people can't possibly trust you."

"My positions are a hell of a lot closer to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on some of the economic positions," Biden said about a potential 2020 run for president.

"I sat with Bernie," Biden said of his meeting with the Clinton rival. "I’m the guy that told him, you shouldn’t accept any money from a super PAC, because people can’t possibly trust you. How will a middle-class guy accept if you accept money?"