Medicare for All vs. 'Diluted' Half-Measures | News & Views

A daily roundup of progressive headlines, opinion, and analysis [Click here](1f9d0/ct0_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) to view this message in a browser window. [Common Dreams](1f9d0/ct1_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [] News & Views | 1/22/19 [] Feature... [] [Progressives Warn Against Democrats Pushing 'Diluted' Half-Measures as Alternative to Medicare for All](1f9d0/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct3_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Jake Johnson, staff writer "Improved Medicare for All has support from an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters, so why the sudden proliferation of public option proposals? We should be very skeptical of these sorts of bills." [] [] News... [] [As Americans Increasingly Bear 'Real Costs of Climate Crisis,' Polls Show Soaring Realization of Global Warming's Threat](1f9d0/ct4_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [march for science](1f9d0/ct5_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) by Jessica Corbett, staff writer While President Donald Trump, GOP lawmakers, and the fossil fuel industry continue to deny the dangers of the climate crisis to justify pushing for polluter-friendly policies, a growing majority of Americans—faced with increasingly destructive and costly droughts, storms, and wildfires—accept global warming driven by human activity as reality and are concerned about it, according to a pair of polls out Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------------- [As Public Shouts Approval for Ocasio-Cortez's 70% Tax Rate for Ultra-Rich, Elites at Davos Admit: "It's Scary"](1f9d0/ct6_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct7_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Julia Conley, staff writer Gathering for the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps town of Davos, some of the world's wealthiest business leaders and so-called "thought leaders" focused their attention Monday on a proposal that's gaining traction in the U.S.—a return to a far higher marginal tax rate for the wealthy as a way of correcting the country's widening wealth gap. --------------------------------------------------------------- ['We Are Watching the Ice Sheet Hit a Tipping Point': Greenland Melting Even Faster Than Feared](1f9d0/ct8_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [fjord is seen from the air in southwest Greenland](1f9d0/ct9_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) by Jessica Corbett, staff writer While climate scientists have repeatedly raised alarm about the how human-caused global warming is driving "off the charts" ice loss in Greenland that will contribute to devastating sea level rise, a new analysis of a less studied region has ramped up those concerns, revealing that Greenland's ice sheet is melting even faster than previously thought. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Not Yet a Strike But a 'Work Stoppage Nonetheless': Unpaid TSA Agents Calling Out at Unsustainable Rates](1f9d0/ct10_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct11_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Jake Johnson, staff writer "At some point TSA workers won't be able to afford childcare to come to work, and they'll have to look for other jobs." --------------------------------------------------------------- ['Poor King Snowflake': Trump Admits Ordering Huckabee Sanders to Halt WH Briefings Because Reporters Behave 'Rudely'](1f9d0/ct12_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct13_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Jon Queally, staff writer "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," said one political reporter in response --------------------------------------------------------------- [Putting Tax Rates and Billionaire 'Excess' in Moral Terms, Ocasio-Cortez Asks 'What Kind of Society Do We Want to Live In?'](1f9d0/ct14_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct15_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Julia Conley, staff writer Appearing on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Monday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) once again brought to prime time a discussion of the "immoral" economic system which has allowed an extreme wealth gap to widen in the United States, explaining her proposal to impose a far higher tax rate on the wealthiest Americans in order to even the playing field. --------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [More News](1f9d0/ct16_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [] Views... [] [The Year of the Child (in Trouble): We-Are-Not-Them Exceptionalism](1f9d0/ct17_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [Children in a refugee camp in Jordan. (Photo: Reuters)](1f9d0/ct18_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) by Karen Greenberg Creating a global lost generation --------------------------------------------------------------- [Thinking About George Washington's Teeth on MLK, Jr. Day](1f9d0/ct19_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct20_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Robert Shetterly I wonder if we are all taught the story about the wooden teeth to cover up the story of the slaves' teeth. Perhaps Washington himself, ashamed of the truth, promoted the wooden teeth story. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Is Pence as Unfit for Office as Trump?](1f9d0/ct21_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct22_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Mike Lofgren His delusional, dead-on-arrival speech about ISIS certainly suggests it. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Medicare For All—The Democratic Party Audition for 2020](1f9d0/ct23_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) 1f9d0/ct24_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY by Thomas Neuburger How will the Democratic Party, in the aggregate, respond when bills in Congress present Party leaders with a moment of decision — to support or not to support; to sabotage in secret or to show their approval in plain sight and by their actions? --------------------------------------------------------------- [The Part About MLK Many White People Don’t Like to Talk About](1f9d0/ct25_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is shoved back by Mississippi patrolmen during the 1966 March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson (Photo: Underwood Archives/Getty Images)](1f9d0/ct26_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) by Zenobia Jeffries Warfield Dr. King was widely disliked for his message of liberation for oppressed people in this country—Black people, Brown people, Native people, all poor people --------------------------------------------------------------- [Single Payer Gold Standard HR 676 Rest in Peace](1f9d0/ct27_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance didn’t miss the irony of losing HR 676 to NATO on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. It was King who said – “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” (Photo: Screenshot)](1f9d0/ct28_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) by Russell Mokhiber “Unless the movement acts quickly to assure HR 676’s ban on for-profit institutions is maintained, Jayapal’s new bill will remove this vital section of HR 676.” --------------------------------------------------------------- [] [More Views](1f9d0/ct29_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [] Newswire... [] [350.org on Latest National Survey on Climate Change and the American Public](1f9d0/ct30_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [The Anniversary Of Roe v. Wade Reminds Us Women’s Lives Are At Stake](1f9d0/ct31_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [] [More Newswire](1f9d0/ct32_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [] [Share this newsletter with a friend](1f9d0/ct33_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) [] [Donate](1f9d0/ct34_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) --------------------------------------------------------------- [Rate us on Google](1f9d0/ct35_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) | [Follow us on Facebook](1f9d0/ct36_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) | [Follow us on Twitter](1f9d0/ct37_0/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY) Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community. An independent, non-profit newscenter since 1997. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. [Common Dreams](1f9d0/ct1_1/1?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY), PO Box 443, Portland, ME 04112, USA | 207.775.0488 Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax deductible. EIN: 20-3368194 | [Unsubscribe](1f9d0/q-003a/zout?sid=TV2%3AlFw0NERnY)