2016 Postmortem

I really did think the last crash was a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to give the people a little relief with universal health care.

Old Democrats would have pushed it through with the knowledge that with so many economically devastated, the least we could do was provide the basic human right of Medicare for All.

And placing a tiny half-penny tax on every Wall Street trade to finance it and other needs like massive infrastructure repair and greening, with the major financial benefit of curbing giant speculative trading.

It is very difficult to know that wasn't done, with trillions going to the very groups that caused the crash in the first place. Even acknowledging the trillions is difficult. We are told to think about "only" the 700 billion "that has been paid back in full."

Old Democrats would have seized the time of great financial suffering to put through the most positive government move of relieving some of our suffering in terms of healthcare, to give the people a very tangible sense of what good democratic governance can do. They would have done what the GOP fears-- give the people a gut level national health security for our tax dollars.

Instead we are all asked to feel better because the 1% economy has improved for them.

And Bernie is always asked How Are You Gonna Pay For It? And we're encouraged to think of Medicare for All as pie in the sky.