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Sen. Sanders’ July 2017 version of S.1804 included no transition period. By September it would be phased in over 4 years. That’s less incremental than other plans but it’s still incremental. Honest question: Who gets to decide HOW incremental “counts” as being “acceptable”?
The ACA took 4-5 years to fully ramp up, and it only directly impacted perhaps 10% of the population, and there was still massive backlash. I’m not saying it should take 40 years, but why is 4 is the magic number? What if it ends up taking 6 or 7? Why would that be Evil?
Perhaps Bernie’s advisors crunched the data and honestly think it can be fully ramped up in 4 years. Or perhaps they went with 4 years to squeeze it into a single presidential term (though it wouldn’t kick off until at least one year into the term).
But the upcoming House version apparently tries to squeeze it into *2* years. Is that feasible? I doubt it, but who knows. Even so, that means from someone pushing the House version, BERNIE’S version is “too incremental”, since it’d take twice as long!
Again, I don’t know all the behind the scenes reasoning. Maybe both the 2- and 4-year timeframes are based on hard evidence. The point is that you shouldn’t tear someone else a new asshole just because they honestly think a more “incremental” approach would work better.
Maybe they’re wrong, but if they are it doesn’t automatically mean they’re a Neoliberal Corporate Sellout. They might just honestly think it’ll take longer than you do. And hey, maybe they’re right.
MFA diehards often use the moon landing as a comparison—“JFK asked the impossible, and NASA delivered within 10 years!”
OK...but what if he’d said “within 5 years” instead of 10?
OK...but what if he’d said “within 5 years” instead of 10?
Would that have made the 1969 moon landing any less amazing an accomplishment? No...but what if everyone was shitting on NASA for taking 9 years instead of 5 as being “too incremental”?
I’ll also note that the moon landing didn’t require overhauling the entire existing U.S. road system while the entire population was using it. In fact, the original federal highway system project took 35 years to complete.
PS I forgot to include the source for Sanders’ earlier one-year transition plan: acasignups.net/19/02/08/toy-s…
