The 2028 General Election

[Humble Narcissist]

The center gets us endless wars and neocon foreign policy.  I'll take Ron Paul on foreign policy and Bernie on health care.  They can split the difference on everything else.

Not a bad idea.

[Grape Ape]

The center gets us endless wars and neocon foreign policy.  I'll take Ron Paul on foreign policy and Bernie on health care.  They can split the difference on everything else.

What is Bernie's policy - free universal?

[AbrahamG]

We pay lots of money in taxes that goes abroad and to pork projects. Put that money towards Medicare for all. Add to that employers contributions going to Medicare for all instead of a CEO's pocket and we're well on our way. That's before we even touch military spending. Every developed country in the world does it. No reason we can't do it better. You either believe in American exceptionalism or you don't. This allows doctors and patients to streamline costs and still make doctors extremely wealthy. If a doctor doesn't like it, he or she are free to practice in Canada, Mexico, Europe l, Africa, the Middle East or Australia. 

[Grape Ape]

We pay lots of money in taxes that goes abroad and to pork projects. Put that money towards Medicare for all. Add to that employers contributions going to Medicare for all instead of a CEO's pocket and we're well on our way. That's before we even touch military spending. Every developed country in the world does it. No reason we can't do it better. You either believe in American exceptionalism or you don't. This allows doctors and patients to streamline costs and still make doctors extremely wealthy. If a doctor doesn't like it, he or she are free to practice in Canada, Mexico, Europe l, Africa, the Middle East or Australia.

Sounds decent on the surface.

My initial thoughts, top of mind:

Would doctors ability to make as much as they wanted be hamstrung by this?

Could it stiffle innovation?

Do you trust the government to actually be able to handle this efficiently?

Did Bernie rail against DOGE?  Honestly I don't know.

What do you hope to get for Skubal?  Is Torres getting moved as well?

[chaos]

We pay lots of money in taxes that goes abroad and to pork projects.

This

Do you trust the government to actually be able to handle this efficiently?

Not a chance in hell.

[AbrahamG]

Sounds decent on the surface.

My initial thoughts, top of mind:

Would doctors ability to make as much as they wanted be hamstrung by this?

Could it stiffle innovation?

Do you trust the government to actually be able to handle this efficiently?

Did Bernie rail against DOGE?  Honestly I don't know.

What do you hope to get for Skubal?  Is Torres getting moved as well?

I think doctors will do just fine.  If this keeps their year after year increases in line with common folks, I'm good with that.

I don't worry about innovation too much as right now there is no incentive to find cures only treatments.  Taking the profit motive out hopefully encourages the medical industrial complex to cure more disease since the motivation is to make things cheaper across the board.  During Covid the government awarded big pharma the cash cow of coming up with vaccines and treatments which they did.  I'm not going to get derailed about whether they worked or not but that was private sector innovation not the government. 

I've never collected medicare, medicaid, unemployment benefits or social security but my family and friends that have don't complain.

I can't remember about Bernie and DOGE so I'm in the same boat as you.  DOGE was ignorantly executed.  I work in Print/Graphic Arts.  We have 200 people in my building.  If DOGE came in and just cut 20% without doing a deep dive of who or what is an absolute necessity, this place would have gone under.  Yes, I know that some of the wrongs were righted and some folks got their jobs back but I can't imagine they are going to ever be overly enthused about going above and beyond ever again given the buttocks fucking they received.  Again, the biggest bloat on the budget is the military industrial complex.  They weren't audited at all.  In fact their budget got bigger. 

I'm over Skubal.  I can't even call him Six Inning Skubal anymore.  His last two outings have been a robust 5 innings apiece.  Going back to last years final playoff game where he left after 6 innings and retired something like 12 of the final 13 batters he faced and was pumping his fist knowing he was done.  That really soured me.  He should have fought his fat ass off to stay in.  Instead, he was all too happy to leave.  Cy Young or not, that's not championship level moxy.  He pitches one more inning and we most likely win that series and move on.

On to your questions.  I want a shut down relief pitcher for him and a right handed bat or as close to a can't miss prospect as we can get.  We need a relief pitcher more than we need Skubal.  We have Montero to go back into the rotation and Jackson Jobe will be back probably within the month.  Hoping Verlander too can pitch down the stretch even out of the bullpen would be a help.  I love Gleyber Torres.  He is one of the most under appreciated players I've ever seen.  That said, he's on a one year deal and would want a raise and multiple year contract to stay.  I couldn't justify either given his injuries the last two seasons. 

Sorry for the Matthew 6:45 wall of text. 

ps.  The home run derby being on Netflix pissed me the fuck off last night.  I have it but they block it at work and I had to watch on my phone. 

[GymnJuice]

We pay lots of money in taxes that goes abroad and to pork projects. Put that money towards Medicare for all. Add to that employers contributions going to Medicare for all instead of a CEO's pocket and we're well on our way. That's before we even touch military spending. Every developed country in the world does it. No reason we can't do it better. You either believe in American exceptionalism or you don't. This allows doctors and patients to streamline costs and still make doctors extremely wealthy. If a doctor doesn't like it, he or she are free to practice in Canada, Mexico, Europe l, Africa, the Middle East or Australia.

I agree that in a country as rich as ours we should be able to provide a basic level of healthcare to our own citizens and we should prioritize that over foreign wars. My concern with 'Medicare for All' is that it's essentially single payer by another name. It would turn doctors, nurses, and hospitals into de facto government employees, creating an enormous, unaccountable bureaucracy. That's the kind of beast you can’t starve, staffed by workers with little incentive to innovate or perform efficiently. Think of the work ethic of the majority of your postal workers, DMV employees, etc.

[Grape Ape]

I think doctors will do just fine.  If this keeps their year after year increases in line with common folks, I'm good with that.

I don't worry about innovation too much as right now there is no incentive to find cures only treatments.  Taking the profit motive out hopefully encourages the medical industrial complex to cure more disease since the motivation is to make things cheaper across the board. During Covid the government awarded big pharma the cash cow of coming up with vaccines and treatments which they did.  I'm not going to get derailed about whether they worked or not but that was private sector innovation not the government. 

I've never collected medicare, medicaid, unemployment benefits or social security but my family and friends that have don't complain.

I can't remember about Bernie and DOGE so I'm in the same boat as you.  DOGE was ignorantly executed.  I work in Print/Graphic Arts.  We have 200 people in my building.  If DOGE came in and just cut 20% without doing a deep dive of who or what is an absolute necessity, this place would have gone under.  Yes, I know that some of the wrongs were righted and some folks got their jobs back but I can't imagine they are going to ever be overly enthused about going above and beyond ever again given the buttocks fucking they received.  Again, the biggest bloat on the budget is the military industrial complex.  They weren't audited at all.  In fact their budget got bigger. 

I'm over Skubal.  I can't even call him Six Inning Skubal anymore.  His last two outings have been a robust 5 innings apiece.  Going back to last years final playoff game where he left after 6 innings and retired something like 12 of the final 13 batters he faced and was pumping his fist knowing he was done.  That really soured me.  He should have fought his fat ass off to stay in.  Instead, he was all too happy to leave.  Cy Young or not, that's not championship level moxy.  He pitches one more inning and we most likely win that series and move on.

On to your questions.  I want a shut down relief pitcher for him and a right handed bat or as close to a can't miss prospect as we can get.  We need a relief pitcher more than we need Skubal.  We have Montero to go back into the rotation and Jackson Jobe will be back probably within the month.  Hoping Verlander too can pitch down the stretch even out of the bullpen would be a help.  I love Gleyber Torres.  He is one of the most under appreciated players I've ever seen.  That said, he's on a one year deal and would want a raise and multiple year contract to stay.  I couldn't justify either given his injuries the last two seasons. 

Sorry for the Matthew 6:45 wall of text. 

ps.  The home run derby being on Netflix pissed me the fuck off last night.  I have it but they block it at work and I had to watch on my phone.

You may be good with the first sentence, but doctors might not.  Especially after the huge outlays in education they need to get started.

As for the bolded, I think that's an awesome point and I had not even considered that.  Like we all agree - we don't do preventative / cure stuff, it's all treatment.  If that incentivizes a shift, it would be incredible.

DOGE is a great idea, but they went too fast.  I also didn't like the daily updates.  It was when everyone was super gung ho after winning the election.   I would still like them to exist, but be methodical, and report on what's found once it's concrete.  There are billions of dollars of fraud and waste that needs to be eliminated.

I am predicting Philly or Milwaukee for Skubal.