Beto O'Rourke is not the progressive some imagine [View all]

[workinclasszero]

by Elizabeth Bruenig

In the meantime, though, we have the national election to think about, and when it comes to national politics, O’Rourke is plainly uninspiring.

As Zaid Jilani pointed out at Current Affairs, O’Rourke’s congressional voting record signals skepticism about progressive priorities. “While the Democratic base is coalescing around single-payer health care and free college, O’Rourke sponsored neither House bill,” Jilani wrote, “During his time in Congress, he never joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” Instead, O’Rourke is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a centrist caucus with Clintonian views on health care, education and trade.

Where it comes to Medicare-for-all, O’Rourke has been carefully unclear about his stance: A Politico article from July notes that, at least for a time, he had sworn off using the terms “single payer” or “Medicare-for-all,” instead using the less-specific, policy-neutral phrase “universal, guaranteed, high-quality health care for all.”

His campaign website remains unclear, stating that he aims for achieving universal health care coverage “whether it be through a single payer system, a dual system, or otherwise.”

O’Rourke’s other progressive-ish policy positions tend to follow along these lines. While some progressives, rallied by talk of a Green New Deal, have argued for higher taxes on oil and gas company profits, fossil fuel lobbyists to be banned from working in the White House and a whole-economy overhaul slotting Americans into jobs producing carbon-neutral infrastructure, O’Rourke’s statements on energy have been surprisingly thin. He has called the decision between oil and gas and renewable energy sources “a false choice” and proposes on his campaign website mainly to rejoin the Paris climate accord, empower the Environmental Protection Agency and enact energy reform.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-beto-orourke-not-progressive-enough-1207-20181206-story.html