The Democrat Party’s base seems to be getting more extreme by the day, as evidenced by the leading Presidential candidates who call for unrestricted abortion, unrestricted immigration, healthcare for illegal aliens, and single payer healthcare plans, among other progressive positions.
Exit surveys from the recent Iowa Caucus showed that 6 in 10 Democratic caucus-goers preferred government-run healthcare to private insurance. The two progressive favorites, Senator Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, would both take us back to the days of Obamacare, only this time with even greater government control.
Sanders has called for a socialist “Medicare for All” plan and the total elimination of private insurance. His protege, Buttigieg, is advertising a “Medicare for All Who Want It” plan, which would essentially reinstate Obamacare with an even more punishing individual mandate.
Matt Bruenig, the head of the left-wing People’s Policy Project think tank, told the Washington Post:
“If you choose not to enroll in any coverage, you could still be on the hook for thousands of dollars. Under Buttigieg’s proposal, Americans who lack coverage would be automatically enrolled in the government plan, potentially saddling them with a big bill at the end of the year for ‘retroactive’ coverage.”
The Post noted that critics have estimated the cost to be $7,000 per uninsured individual per year. In other words, unless a family can afford to pay a $7,000 fine each year, they will be forced to pay for health insurance, even if they don’t want it.
Meanwhile, as more and more people leave the Democrat Party due to such extremism, independent voters who helped President Donald Trump win the White House in 2016 are not on board with Medicare for All-style healthcare. A recent poll taken in November 2019 found that swing voters do not support this kind of government takeover of healthcare, recognizing that it would necessitate raising middle class taxes.
So in the wake of incredible economic growth under the Trump Administration, especially after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted, the voice of today’s Democrat Party is quite confusing. Would they really vote for anyone other than Trump no matter the cost?
Democrats have been known to ignore economic realities in the past, but would they ignore the political cost of losing swing voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and other crucial states? We’ll soon find out as the dramatic primary process continues to unfold.
