Brookings Institution: William A. Galston: 'Is Medicare For All A Trap For Democrats?'

Source:Brookings Institution- Washington: still the capital of the free world. 

Source:The New Democrat

"As the campaign for the presidential nomination heats up, the Medicare for All proposal that became popular with Democrats on the stump in 2018 risks pushing Democratic candidates into a trap in 2020. A political party is asking for trouble when it embraces a position on a high-profile issue that most Americans reject. But it’s not easy for a to avoid this pitfall when a majority of its own members endorse such a position."

From Brookings

"Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) joins MTP Daily to talk about single-payer health care and the "Medicare For All" bill that he is co-sponsoring."

From MSNBC

Source:MSNBC- Yes. Democrats are divided over Medicare For All 

To answer William Galston's question: Medicare For All, is a trap for Democrat and I'll explain why.

Source:The Wall Street Journal- Socialist Democrats?

Back in 1972 had the Democratic Party nominated Senator Edmund Muskie, who was a solid Progressive Democrat, but a Center-Left mainstream Democrat, over Senator George McGovern who was the Bernie Sanders Socialist of him time running nationally against a Center-Right and in many cases Progressive Republican in Richard Nixon, chances are and would depend on what campaign he would've ran, but he probably beats President Nixon in that election. The reasons why Richard Nixon ever becomes President in the first place and didn't win in 1960 has as much to do with to do with who he ran against in 60, 68, and 72 and the Democratic Party during those years, as it had to do with Richard Nixon the man himself. Who was never a popular national figure, at least personally even if Americans liked his foreign policy. party

If anything Donald Trump is even less likable and and more unpopular than Richard Nixon. Whatever you think of Dick Nixon, at least he had a plus approval rating as President and more than two years into his presidency, Trump has never been above even 45% and that was in his first days as President. Which means that Trump can't run for election on his popularity and run a positive campaign, because other than the strong economic and job growth in the economy, President trump really has nothing to run on in a positive sense. Americans clearly don't like him, don't trust him, don't even believe the man, don't even believe he's honest and not just ignorant and unqualified and they believe he's ignorant and unqualified, but apparently disliked Hillary Clinton even more in 2016. Which is how Donald trump, who is nothing more than a reality show star who really has nothing other than that when it comes to his own accomplishments becomes President of the United States.

So why is Medicare For All a trap for Democrats?

Instead of being able to run a positive reelection campaign in 2020, President Trump will be running a campaign against the Democratic Party. He'l be running against those Socialist Democrats ( as he'll them ) and their Socialist Democrat nominee for President ( as he'll call whoever that person is ) who wants to just raise your taxes, spend most of your money for you, take your health care and health insurance from you and make all of us dependent on Uncle Sam for our daily survival. If the Democratic Party and their leader embrace Medicare For All and the so-called Green New Deal in general. But if Democrats nominate a Center-Left Progressive ( which is what Progressives really are and not Socialists ) like a Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Andrew Cuomo, Jay Inslee, ( just to throw out some names here ) than they can not just beat President Trump, especially if they have a solid Vice Presidential nominee, but don't have to run to the middle and be boring to beat the Republican Party in 2020. Which means not just the White House, but winning back the Senate and adding to their majority in the House.

The difference between what's called Medicare For All which depending on what numbers you look would be a new 3 trillion-dollar Federal program, where almost no one knows how to finance that and plus all the lost jobs that would result in eliminating the private health insurance industry, as well as perhaps jobs in the medical industry with hospitals having to layoff doctors and nurses because Medicare simply doesn't cover everything that private health insurers cover and what's called the Medicare Public Option that was almost passed out of Congress in 2009-10 and probably should've been had then Senate Leader Harry Reid used reconciliation on that and he could've gotten it through the Senate with just 51 Democratic votes, is that the private health insurance and health care industry would remain in place. But Americans depending on how the Medicare Public Option would be set up would now have the option to buy into Medicare in their state as if they were buying private health insurance, or keep their private health insurance plan.

I have issues with what's called Medicare For All for multiple reasons.

Perhaps the main one after you get to how huge the new Medicare would be with it now responsible for the health insurance and therefor the health care of about 320 million Americans ( and growing ) with roughly 1/5 Americans not able to afford health insurance at all which would make the Medicare costs for everyone else especially lower middle class Americans more expensive, because they would have to cover their own Medicare costs, plus the costs of low-income Americans whether they're working or not.

Perhaps the 2nd would be me as  Federalist who actually still believes in the U.S. Constitution and that having to do with the 10th Amendment. It would be one thing if the Federal Government decided to eliminate the private health insurance industry and replace it with Medicare For All and allow the states to run their own Medicare program, instead of Uncle Sam trying to run the whole damn program for the entire country himself, because then Medicare For All would be on sound constitutional grounds and not get the 10th Amendment challenges in court that it would be guaranteed to get. And then you would also get some competition between the states about how best to run Medicare in America.

My 3rd issue has to do with the fact that Medicare For All is not only not practical, but not necessary either. You can get to universal health care coverage without having to create one huge and expensive health insurance program. Which is the Medicare Public Option that I've already mentioned. Give Americans of all ages the option to buy into Medicare as if they were purchasing private health insurance.

Similar to Medicaid, allow the states to set up their own Medicare programs instead of again Uncle Sam trying to run the entire new program by himself. And the simple answer to the simple question of how would this be paid for is it would be paid for by the customers themselves. And you could set up a new low-income fund for low-income workers and people who are on Welfare so they could get into Medicare as well, if they choose too. With a Medicare Public Option you could also now eliminate Medicaid, because Medicare would become universal in the sense that every would become eligible for it. You could also even phase out the payroll tax for Medicare, because you now have all this new additional Americans paying into Medicare for their health insurance. Which would be a huge middle class tax cut for 10s or hundreds of millions of Americans.

If Democrats are smart history suggests they might not be instead repeat the history of 1968 and 72, but if they're smart they'll leave the socialism for the Green Party again in 2020 and instead of run as the FDR or Truman, LBJ, Obama Progressive Democratic Party as a party that's not looking to take over Americans lives for them and create a government big enough to run people's lives for them, but instead a responsible government that is able to empower people who are in need to get up and become productive and successful members of society.

As well as be able to represent the entire country as a whole and not just as politicians who are running for a certain wing of the country that wants government to do everything for them, but instead as a pluralist party that represents all Americans and what we have in common as a country that believes that every American regardless of their physical identity and DNA can make it America on their own, if they're just given the opportunity to do so.