With Iowa caucuses looming, Sanders still has some major policy proposals to unveil

[Alfresco]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/13/with-iowa-caucuses-looming-sanders-still-has-some-major-policy-proposals-to-unveil/

Excerpt:
By John Wagner January 13 at 11:30 AM

With less than three weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses, Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders still has some major items on his to-do list.

The Vermont senator has pledged both to lay out proposed changes to the country’s income tax rates -- including what top earners would pay -- and deliver a speech on his foreign-policy vision before the Feb. 1 caucuses, when the first votes will be cast in the Democratic nominating process.

On Wednesday, spokesman Michael Briggs acknowledged the commitments but said neither has been firmly scheduled.

Sanders has also come under growing pressure in recent days to release the details of his plan for a shift to a single-payer health-care system, a bold leap and a major policy difference with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who has advocated building on the Affordable Care Act.
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With Sanders’s recent rise in the polls, the Clinton camp has stepped up its calls for the senator to lay his cards on the table, arguing the former secretary of state has gone further in detailing policy proposals than Sanders.

On Wednesday, for instance, after the Sanders campaign sent out an email to reporters listing how it would pay for several major proposals, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon took to Twitter to note that there was no mention of a health-care proposal.

“He left out the $15 trillion proposal that requires across-the-board tax increases on working families? Go figure,” Fallon tweeted.

Later, Fallon added: “If Sanders wants to argue his huge tax hikes on middle class are worth it, fine. But be honest about what is required and let voters decide.”

[safeinOhio]

1. WSJ misleading figure of $15 trillion from Truthout

Thanks to a landmark study in 2013 by Gerald Friedman, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, we have a solid financial analysis of the costs and benefits of a single-payer national health plan. With NHI, $592 billion would be saved annually by cutting the administrative waste of some 1,300 private health insurers ($476 billion) and reducing pharmaceutical prices to European levels ($116 billion). These savings would be enough to cover all of the 44 million uninsured (at the time of his study) and upgrade benefits for all other Americans, even including dental and long-term care. A single-payer public financing system would be established, similar to traditional (not privatized) Medicare, coupled with a private delivery system. Instead of having to pay the increasing costs of private health insurance, so often with unaffordable deductibles and other cost-sharing, patients would present their NHI cards at the point of service without cost-sharing or other out-of-pocket costs. Care would be based on medical need, not ability to pay. (2)

more at
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32945-calculating-the-cost-of-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-program

[Alfresco]

4. Unless I'm mistaken it's 15 trillion minus the estimated savings. ?

[NCTraveler]

2. He really doesn't.

It's working for him and I expect him to stick with it. The less he has, the less we know. He is a career politician and knows this works best nationally.

[Alfresco]

6. You think Bernie would make a pledge and not follow through for political reasons? :-)

[sonofspy777]

3. Oh, like she hasn't!

"With Sanders’s recent rise in the polls, the Clinton camp has stepped up its calls for the senator to lay his cards on the table, arguing the former secretary of state has gone further in detailing policy proposals than Sanders. "

Stuff and nonsense!

[Alfresco]

5. Bernie pledged to reveal his proposed income tax rates and his foreign-policy vision.

It would be nice for the voters to know the details of his plan for a shift to a single-payer health-care system costing $15 trillion.