Politico just released a poll of hypothetical 2020 Presidential candidates

[Kinser79]

(03-11-2017, 03:35 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: 1. How would y'all handle health care, not health insurance? I think the employer based model is really broken. I think health care does not follow the free market model.  There's a mismatch between the demand and ability to pay.  I'd put the bans on drug imports/inability to get health insurance across state lines at the very top.  I think Medicare works just fine, thank you very much. I'd just pull the plug, implement single payer, with Medicare starting at age 0, and repeal Medicare payroll taxes, abolish duplicate stuff like VA care, Medicaid, and CHIP.  I'd also ding corporate money grubbing by setting copyrights way back to 20 years, and no special patent extensions for Big Pharma.

I don't think there is a Y'all here in this regard.  However, I would say we first have to determine if the problem is health care provision (as in are there enough doctors in the right fields for sick people to go to?--bear in mind most people need only a GP for most things).  

If the answer is provision I'd start by hiring more doctors.  Perhaps getting rid of the AMA would be a good start as they restrict the number of spaces in medical schools.  And of course that assumes we he have the problem of a shortage of doctors.

If the problem is insurance, then I would liberalize the insurance markets and abolish employer based health care insurance.  Insurance in my view should follow the patient and not be tied to their employment..you know because people quit/get fired/get their job sent of to Chi-nah.  (Sorry every time I think of the word China, I immediately think of how Daddy says it.)

On top of that I would clear out the ERs by creating free/low cost clinics for the poor and destitute.

I do not support either medicare or a single payer like Britain though it could be made to work it would just be highly inefficient.  Like the VA only worse cause it would involve more people.

In another thread I propose turning over Health Care/Health Care Insurance over to the states.  That way Commiefornia can have whatever the hell they want, Florida can have what it wants, Vermont can do its Single Payer thing and so on. [It's a concept I like to call federalism.] The states are closer to the people and can handle this better.  One-size fits all leaves one wearing a moo-moo and another a midriff shirt that rips when you move.

Quote:2. I agree that the Deep State/MIC/empire project needs to be trimmed way back. There's no reason the US military budget should be larger than the rest of the world's.

I think there are a whole departments that can be scrapped.  The CIA/NSA/DEA are just the top of my list.  Basically anything that isn't an enumerated power the Feds can't do.

Chief Justice John Marshall Wrote:This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it, would seem too apparent, to have required to be enforced by all those arguments, which its enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge; that principle is now universally admitted.

Quote:3. I'd get rid of corporate welfare like tax breaks and taxing rentier income at a lower rate than earned income.

I want to abolish the 16th amendment which would suck all the money straight out of the coffers for such shenanigans.  

Quote:4. What would y'all free marketers do about automation/outsourced induced unemployment? Moi? I think there's a happy medium between all out  "free market" stuff and shit holes like Zimbabwe/Venezuela/former USSR.  Growth for growth sake isn't a end all to be all. Economic growth can be high, but at what cost?  Should we accept pollution, wealth disparity, and crony capitalism as the trade offs?

There is.  It is called Economic Nationalism.  For all the good free markets do internally, attempting to impose a free market model in international markets wherein other countries do not likewise have free markets merely opens one's own economy to exploitation by foreigners.  One of the reason why Free Market purists are called "Lolbertarians".

We can have a free market between California and Indiana, and Alabama and Wisconsin but between the US and Chi-nah or Bangladesh not so much.

Quote:5. How would infrastructure be maintained?   I don't think a nation of toll roads sounds nice.

Unless you have a easy source of cheap crude the interstate system and suburbia is a white elephant.  I of course would promote rail, and do so through private enterprise.  State and local roads are of course the province of the States.  Construction and maintainence of air port and harbor infrastructure would be the province of either State or Local government, though I do think there is a need for the FAA due to the Commerce Clause.

Quote:6. Should old people work till they drop? I think the IRA/401K model is broken. There aren't very many stock/bond market experts out there.

I don't see why not?  That's what boomers expect from Xers and Millenials.  Not to sound heartless but the idea of retirement is something that was unheard of a century ago.  I'm convinced that retirement killed my grandfather.

Quote:7. I'd abolish all house buying subsidies like VA,Freddie MAC,Fannie MAE, and whatever other house buying subsidies are out there.

Done.  The government shouldn't be in the business of giving anyone money to buy durable consumer goods be they a house or a washing machine.  Why?  Because it distorts the market and causes mal-investment.  The less the government (and the Federal Government in particular) is involved in the economic processes of the country the better.

Quote:8. In short, I think a base living standard folks should have so folks that fall on hard times don't go stealing, become infectious disease vectors due to hunger, and yeah, just me trying to be a decent human as it pertains to US citizens. As long as citizens are fed, housed, and health is maintained, I'm OK.  No a bought house, Ishits , pay TeeVee, aren't part of the package. I have no pay TeeVee and a cheap 25$/month flip phone work OK for me.

Well intentioned, but it ultimately would fail.  If everyone had a guaranteed income of just 12K per year (which is about poverty line) it would cost 3.6 TRILLION (with a T) dollars.  Or approximately 25% of the current economy.  And that is without figuring out the overhead which would likely eat up an other 25% of the economy.

Personally I think we have seen where the welfare state has lead us--decadence, dependence, and destruction.  If there is a need for charities I'm sure that religious, civic and fraternal organizations will spring up to fill the need.  Just like they did before the old New Deal came along and started wrecking everything.