Sanders’ Plans For Health Care, Other Social Programs Boost Federal Control
The Vermont senator and presidential candidate, who describes himself as a Democratic socialist, favors approaches to health reform education and child care that would convert these industries from the current public-private mix to operations run mainly with federal money.
The Washington Post:
How Bernie Sanders Would Transform The Nation
The biggest pieces of Sanders’s domestic agenda — making college, health care and child care more affordable — seek to capture these industries and convert them to run chiefly on federal money. ... Bernie Sanders — a senator from Vermont who describes himself as a “democratic socialist” — will never get everything he wants in Washington. And that still would be true if he became President Sanders. Republicans in the Congress would fight him fiercely. Democrats might not be much help. In fact, Sanders’s most recent Senate bills — legislation that would make college free and provide universal health care — attracted exactly zero Democrats as co-sponsors. (Fahrenthold, 10/1)
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, how the landscape may or may not be changing for conservatives -
McClatchy:
Conservatives Face Long, Maybe Impassable, Road To Big Victories
Hardcore Republicans are going to have a hard time getting their way. They’re rejoicing these days as a longtime thorn in the side, House Speaker John Boehner, prepares to step down and some of their ranks could start moving up in the House of Representatives leadership. They see new hope for efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, keep taxes low and slash federal spending. They’re dreaming. (Lightman, 9/30)