Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Is it too soon to be talking 2020?

I wish I shared your admiration for Joe Biden's ability to get things done.

He has promised to veto MFA if it crosses his desk, I guess that's all Democrats really want. He has voted multiple times to cut social security and Medicare. Strong issues for most Democrats...cutting those entitlements!

Democrats have made their choice, Biden will most likely be our next president. Maybe you're happy about that, I'm not. Perhaps in the coming years Biden will prove himself to be the dynamic, charismatic, leader who will unite the parties and the American people under one banner. Anything less than that and he will be defeated by a Republican in 2024 if he is able to run at all.

That's the problem with Biden. He has no agenda beyond winning the election and plans to spend his time laughing and ogling for the camera for the entire four years. World events are going to demand far more than Biden has to give.

Now more than ever, I can see that most Americans want things to be like they were before Trump. It's a conservative impulse, even among Democrats. I bet a lot of Trump voters feel the same way, because Trump was so obviously a mistake. Maybe Trump keeps some Evangelicals because they want the end of the world anyway. (If they could just get the Israelis to convert to Christianity! )

From now until January, Trump will continue to do his best to destroy America. He can't help it. That's just Trump being Trump. Unless he dies, of course. Democrats are going to have to do some drastic stuff when they take over. New Deal kind of stuff. If Biden is President, he's going to have to sign the bills the Democratic congress sends him. The President can sabotage agencies but I highly doubt Biden would do that. He's going to put competent, reality-oriented experts in as department heads and cabinet posts. If public health demands it, we will wind up with single-payer, even if Biden opposes it ideologically. The corona virus and the market collapse together will make Biden a lot more of a socialist out of necessity.

I want things to be like they were before Reagan, like how they were in the New Deal era.

We would need a Depression and a leader like Roosevelt or Obama. The Depression may be on its way, could Biden fill the bill for a Leader?

Somehow, I don't see President Biden briskly leading the way to the future. If everything is in the toilet, he's just going to sign all the bills a Democratic congress sends him. And almost all of those are going to have input from some very smart people, even if most politicians are not especially smart. Democrats tend to listen to experts.

Don't forget, lots of Republicans say they don't believe in climate change or evolution even if they are standing in sea water up to their necks.

Yeah...everybody wants to go back in time. And nobody wants to plan for the future. We've been over and over all of Bernie's plans, so what are Biden's plans? He's made it clear he will veto MFA so he won't necessarily just pass what Democrats send him. When he speaks to the throngs at his rallies, what does he promise them? Hope? Change? Anything? Has he promised to take the country back to a better time?

If he just took us back to Obama's first two years it would be a lot better than the shite-show we have now. Remember back when constitutional democracy was a thing?

He could gives us a repaired ACA and force all states to expand their Medicaid up to the bottom of ACA eligibility. (Or just replace Medicaid with ACA that goes all the way to zero income.)

He could give us a public option in all states, which would quickly replace all other plans because it would be 15% cheaper for the same thing. That gets us to MFA, except ACA plans actually tend to be better than Medicare. For example, my ACA-compliant Blue Cross plan had a drug cap at $2000. I pay over $6000 per year for drugs under Medicare Part D.

Biden's a little closer to Hoover than Roosevelt.
The FDR guy in this is obvious.

Hoover was an engineer with poor people skills. FDR was a very rich guy, more like Bloomberg. I doubt FDR went in thinking Bernie thoughts. But he saw what had to be done. He was more pragmatist than anything else.

Republicans, OTOH, fought him every step of the way.

Biden evolved on gay marriage and pulled BAMZ!!! along for the ride. There is hope that ol' Joe will do the right and progressive thing.