Let’s try and do something rare on twitter and have a civil and honest conversation ? Hope you are game. First, please watch what I said. I praised her. I didn’t attack her. My attack was on what I called dishonest progressivism which is not an attack on progressivism.
Generally speaking I am opposed to a progressive agenda but acknowledge the legitimacy and seriousness of many of the policy ideas and I do not question the good intentions and motives of people supporting ideas under the progressive agenda. I have a serious question.
How do we pay for it all without bankrupting the country and beggaring the next generation. I view this as a legitimate question worthy of honest debate. Here is an example. The state of California has an annual budget of $ 145 billion. It is the largest in the country.
Many progressives aligned behind a single payer proposal that was scored at 450 billion a year. How is that any less dishonest than the nonsense that comes out of Trumps mouth. If the proposal is to give every American cradle to grave government benefits.
Day care, Health Care, retirement, free college , guaranteed jobs, student loan forgiveness and meet the current entitlement obligations there is going to need to be a radical reimagining of our tax and govt revenue system.
While I disagree with the idea that Govt should do all of this I would never say that people who do are dishonest. What I termed “ dishonest progressivism” is the notion that we can do all of these things by simply undoing Trumps tax cuts. We are in need of brutal honesty
If the outcome you seek can only be achieved with 75 percent tax rates then make the case. My criticism is around making promises that are unaffordable in the present system. 40 percent of the population doesn’t have $400 dollars cash available for an emergency .
There are more predatory pay day lenders in this country than there are Starbucks. Blue collar workers haven’t seen a real wage increase in 25 years. This is both immoral and wrong but also fundamentally destabilizing to our Republic.
This includes a willingness to try and see if federal govt programs, that I would have a tendency to view skeptically, could be engaged in the fix. I would insist though, that any spending of tax payer dollars for the type of programs we are discussing be accompanied by ruthless
Efficiency and metrics. I think we should demand excellence and efficiency in the delivery of all and any government service . What do you think?
