In a short (3.5 minute) video, Robert Reich gives us six points of criticism and why those criticisms don’t hold water.
Below is my summary of his points:
1) “He’d never beat Trump or Cruz”
2) “Congress would reject his ideas”
- it’s going to happen with a Republican Congress regardless of which Democrat is President
- the only way to change that is to vote out the Republicans
- this requires motivating large numbers of young and old to vote AND keeping them engaged.
3) “America would never elect a socialist”
- America’s most successful programs have been social insurance, Social Security and Medicare
- Roads, military, parks and schools are all shared social expenses
- The problem is that we have excessive socialism for the rich in the form of bank bailouts, subsidies for big business, monopolization, and tax deductible CEO pay packages. Bernie will eliminate that imbalance.
4) “Bernie’s single payer tax plan would raise taxes on the middle class”
- This is a disingenuous argument
- The US pays significantly more per person for healthcare than any other industrialized country, and those countries have universal healthcare
- The average American will pay less for healthcare and have more money in their paycheck.
5) “Colleges would be run by government rules”
- ¾ of college students today already attend public institutions paid for by government, and they are not run be government rules
- The real problem is that too many young people still cannot afford a college education
- The country was moving toward free and affordable higher education through to the 70’s; that came to an abrupt end in the 80’s; we must restart it.
6) “He’s too old”
- That’s untrue
- 60 is today’s 70
- vigorous schedule, running for the train, campaigning, Bernie shows that he has the energy to run this country.
#5 is a new one I haven’t seen, but I appreciate Robert Reich collecting some of the criticisms. This is what we need to be prepared for skeptics and criticism going into the general.