A Response to the Biden Campaign Proposals on Health Care and Student Debt

The following was submitted by a comrade:

“Sorry Joe, it Just Doesn’t Cut It”

So, here’s the scenario, at least in my head. Joe Biden is in negotiations with The Left; it’s like bargaining a labor contract. The Democrats and Joe Biden want “Unity” across the Democratic Party as it faces Trump in the November election.

The Left is interested in moving its agenda forward.

On April 9, in that quest for Unity, the Joe Biden campaign offered two policy initiatives meant to placate and get the Left on board with the Biden campaign. The two policies are student debt relief and healthcare/health insurance.

Back to the contract bargaining scenario that’s in my head. The Biden campaign gave us two proposals on April 9. Because the scenario is in my head, I get to be the Left’s spokesperson. What do we say in response to the April 9 proposals?

In my head, the response goes like this:

Me: “Let me respond to your proposals of the other day. First, I want to say we appreciate your efforts and movement in the direction of accommodating the policy concerns of The Left. We know you want to get us on board, and we know you’re trying to figure a way to adjust your positions in the interests of the working class, oppressed people, rural workers and immigrants. However, in response to your proposals of April 9 – sorry, Joe -- but the proposals just don’t cut it, and I’ll tell you why:

First: Student debt. What’s wrong with you guys? So, poor kids who have incurred debt at a private college or university don’t get debt relief help? Why? Do you feel a need to punish poor and working class students who took out loans to go to a private university? Or, are you trying to punish private universities and colleges by holding their students hostage?

Two: Why are graduate students not covered by your student debt policy? Graduate students have personal student debt that’s in the six figures range. Graduated graduate students are also academics. Yet these academics are faced with years of bouncing across the country from low paid one-year contract to another low paid one- year contract, just like the Middle Ages! Is this how we want to further higher education? By systematically immiserating those who are the backbone of higher education in the USA?

Three: Joe, your proposal on student debt offers no structural changes to higher education. We bail out some students now? Start the student debt crisis over again with a new generation?

Four: If you really want The Left on board, stop your damned means testing. When you means test, there are always winners and losers. Some poor working class kid who made a big mistake and went to a private college, what are you going to say to them? “Sorry kid, you’ll have to pay the full $70K in student debt because you went to a private college”? 

This is what happens when you means test. You divide winners and losers based on a shallow ideology of who “deserves”, who doesn’t, and all the arbitrary and bureaucratic divisions you put in place to enforce the separation of the “deserving”, from those who were on the losing side of the political deal, those dumb, poor, pampered working class kids who went to a private college.

You can do a lot better!

On to healthcare:

Me: So, Joe, your proposal to drop Medicare eligibility to age 60? You know, if you can find a way to include the first 60 years of life too? Then we’d be talking!! Which leads us to the public option…

We’re not impressed with a public option. Why? Because a public option is just another insurance plan out there. Just like Obama Care, there will be co-pays and deductibles up the wazoo, and there will be monthly premiums. In the spirit of Obama Care too, you will be offering higher quality healthcare plans, with lower deductibles and co-pays to those who can afford the high premium, and those who are working class with low incomes, who are stuck with “silver” and “bronze” plans, who face deductibles of $1500 and $6000 respectively. Congrats here! Because you’ve actually built a health insurance program which economically punishes working class people when they seek healthcare!

If you want to push the public option, and want us on the Left to buy-in, you’re off to a bad start. Here’s a hint -- the devil is always in the details!

If you want to get the Left even talking to you on healthcare, you better put a public option out there that starts at 100% subsidized premiums for the lower 90% of the population.

Second, don’t even think about putting co-pays and deductibles in your public option. Every co-pay and deductible is an obstacle in the way of actually receiving healthcare!…. Medicare for All would be so much cost-effective, efficient, and user friendly! But if you insist on subsidizing the health insurance corporations……

Joe, you know, the biggest problem is we just don’t see things the way you do. We have funny ideas, like “An injury to One is an Injury to All”. We know that nobody is better off unless all people are better off. You guys on the other hand through peoples’ lives around like they’re gambling chips. Everything is about the deal; who will be short changed so that others can get a better deal? Sorry, but we don’t think the way.

To sum things up, Joe, your proposals of April 9 just don’t cut it! If you want “enthusiasm” for your campaign, from the Left, you’ll have to do miles and miles better then your proposals of April 9.” 

Out of My Head and Back to Reality

In reality, I have a pretty low bar with this Presidential election. I will vote for Joe whether he becomes more Left friendly or not. My vote for Joe is based on one important criteria; Donald Trump is a Fascist and Joe Biden is not. For me it’s that simple!

I’m also a responsible socialist (at least I’d like to think so). Therefore, I think I have a duty to talk to the rest of my comrades, friends, co-workers and family about being responsible and voting for Biden.

My Biden rap is already worked out, it goes like this: “You will get nothing by voting for Joe Biden, but you will have stopped Fascism in the USA!” Adding a little substance here, a Biden win means that Latinx DREAMERS will get to stay in the US, that voter suppression of oppressed people will be significantly slowed down, we’ll be able to stop gender-based concentration camps of the US-Mexican border, and the Constitution and a republic will be maintained.

I think it’s an honest rap and accurately reflects what’s at stake. But it’s not an inspiring rap.

Many people on the Left will decide to be “responsible” and vote for Biden in order to stop Fascism. On the other hand, many on the Left will see voting for Biden as a surrender of their principles, and among some, there’s a search for serious vengeance.

Anger from the Left, especially youth, are the wages Biden and the Democratic Establishment have earned in their all-out war against the Bernie Sanders’ campaign and every proposal it made. These voters and activists will have a real hard time forgiving Joe Biden and the DNC.

So, what can I say? If Biden and the Democratic establishment want even a sliver of “enthusiasm” from the Left, they’re going to have to do a whole lot better!