Reply #4: That's a fair point [View All]

[liberalpragmatist]

Personally, I'm supportive of this legislation, as I think it does a lot of good things and makes a lot of progress, although doubtless this is going to be a multistep process.

That being said, I do wonder what would happen if a president were to propose single-payer, and campaign on it. It is possible, as you said, that the political pressure of being on the left flank would make a potential compromise much sounder and bolder.

The counterargument is that single-payer has such little support in Congress (Bernie Sanders estimates it has only 10 votes in the Senate) that Congress doesn't even take the argument seriously, and the bargaining position is essentially worthless.