Mediaboss Marketing

USA TODAY

Democrats see chance to win back working class whites Sacramento Bee New internal Democratic data shows the party's House candidates can win back the white working-class voters who strongly supported President Donald Trump last year. But they have a lot of work ahead of them. House Majority PAC, a super PAC allied with ... Analysis: Can a president at war with both Republicans and Democrats govern?USA TODAY Letters: Democrats are the party of nothingOCRegister Letters: What do the Democrats stand for?Press-Enterprise Newsweek -OZY -KWQC-TV6 all 113 news articles »

Read the rest here:
Democrats see chance to win back working class whites - Sacramento Bee

At the age of 70 years old, Donald Trump became the oldest person to enter the presidency following his election. But some are focusing on House Democrats being too old to lead.

During her appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Wallace asked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi if shes frankly, too old, to lead, mentioning Democratic House members who have said Democrats need new leaders with new ideas.

I am a master legislator, Pelosi bragged. I feel very confident about the support I have in my caucus.

Daily Emails and Alerts - Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks about his proposed U.S. government effort against the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, to a gathering of federal, state and local law enforcement officials in Brentwood, New York, U.S. July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The show featured a graphic showing the ages of Democratic House leaders. Pelosi is 77, while House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is 78 and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn is 77.

Wallace mentioned Democratic losses in four special elections in solidly-Republican districts.

Some of your own Democratic colleagues in the House have said part of the problem is you and you leadership team are frankly, too old. And the question I have is, do Democrats need new leaders with new ideas? he asked.

Some younger Democrats have been calling for changes on the leadership team, especially following the Democrats loss in a highly-publicized Georgia special election.

This is certainly something that we have to discuss because it's clear that, I think, across the board in the Democratic Party we need new leadership, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton said. It's time for a new generation of leadership in the party.

Trump famously said his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who was 69 on election day, doesnt have the stamina to be president. Clinton and Trumps 2016 campaign featured the oldest combination of the two major-party nominees. Neither candidate provided much information about their health as Trump allies pushed unfounded theories that Clinton was ill.

The president is known for his affinity for Diet Coke and junk food, but did run a fast-paced campaign with a grueling travel schedule. A letter from his personal physician, Harold Bornstein, was widely criticized after Bornstein declared unequivocally that Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.

Visit link:
Fox News Says Democrats Are Too Old, But Trump Is Oldest President To Enter White House - Newsweek

The simple truth is the economy isn't working the way it should; incomes and wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Wage stagnation, underemployment, the exploding cost of a college education and the erosion of pensions are leaving many without hope. From rural towns to inner cities, millions can no longer achieve the American dream. Meanwhile, Washington special interests and powerful corporations have acquired more and more wealth.

The three of us represent very different districts in Rhode Island, New York and Illinois. Despite the clear regional differences, what we hear from our constituents is the same: They are tired of this rigged system. What they want most is a fighting chance at building a brighter future for themselves and their families. And what they need is a better deal.

Democrats will deliver real solutions, lasting economic growth and take significant action to improve the lives of the American people.

This agenda was created from the ground up across both the House and the Senate, and includes input from across the entire ideological spectrum. By listening to all voices, the agenda reflects the beautiful mosaic and diversity of our country -- as well as the hopes, dreams and aspirations of its people.

Through A Better Deal, we will create opportunities for those who need them most, not just those at the very top. We'll make government responsive to all hardworking Americans, not just a select few. And we'll make certain that if you work hard that you can support your family, that you can retire with the security and dignity that you've earned, and that your children can get the skills and knowledge they need to secure good-paying jobs in their hometowns.

For Democrats, this is our collective vision. This is not a slogan. It's who we are and what we intend to accomplish for the American people.

First, our plan starts by creating millions of good-paying, full-time jobs by directly investing in our crumbling infrastructure -- and putting people back to work building our roads and bridges. To help our small businesses thrive, we will prioritize entrepreneurs over giving tax breaks to special interests. We will fight for a living wage -- so parents don't have to work three or four jobs just to pay rent. And we will keep our promise to millions of workers who earned a pension, Social Security and Medicare so they can retire with dignity.

Second, we will lower the crippling cost of prescription drugs and the cost of an education that leads to a good job with a college degree or a technical skill. And we will crack down on monopolies and the concentration of economic power that has led to higher prices for consumers, workers and small businesses -- and make sure Wall Street never endangers Main Street again.

Third, we will offer new tax incentives to employers to invest in their workforce through training and education. To make sure our country stays on the cutting edge, we will bring high-speed Internet to every community in America and offer an apprenticeship to millions of new workers. We will encourage innovation, invest in advanced research and ensure start-ups and small businesses can compete and prosper. By making it possible for every American to get the skills, tools and knowledge to find a job or to move up in their career, we'll not only improve individual lives, we'll also stay competitive in the global economy.

The choice we face is simple. We can continue down this path of a rigged system and allow Washington to turn a blind eye to painful economic realities that so many Americans are facing. Or we can stand on the side of the American people. We can invest in hardworking families and build an economy that puts Americans first -- defined by better jobs, better wages and a better future.

See the original post:
Democrats: Our plan for a better deal (opinion) - CNN.com

President Harry Truman, who tried to enact a national health care system, gives his 1949 inaugural address. Corbis via Getty Images

For years afterwards, the Democratic partys platform called for a "federally-financed and federally-administered...system of universal National Health Insurance," as the

But Democrats were thwarted by the large price tags, the policy complications, and the pernicious association with socialism, leading them to eventually conclude that only more modest reforms like Obamacare were possible. And support for the approach in the Senate among Democrats lags behind the House.

"There's a bit of a false dawn with single-payer that this is going to be popular even once details are known," said Jim Kessler, the senior vice president for policy at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.

"There's going to be tons of disruption," Kessler continued. "Maybe it's worth it, maybe it isn't. But before people sign on in a rush to it, we have to have a serious analysis of what it's going to mean for people and all the institutions involved."

"The ACAs changes to the health insurance system and the number of people affected by those changes has been small compared to the upheaval that would be brought about by the movement to a single-payer system," the Urban Institute noted in its

Indeed, the same polls that supporters cite to demonstrate the appeal of single payer also show that voters are responsive to negative arguments about costs and government control.

"While a slim majority favors the idea of a national health plan at the outset," wrote Liz Hamel and her colleagues at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation of their

Many Democrats worry their party is hurtling toward a policy commitment they dont fully understand when they should be focused on defending existing gains.

"We're one bad election away from the Affordable Care Act being repealed," said Kessler, referring to possible GOP gains in next year's midterm elections.

Its possible single-payer could give way to less sweeping changes if Democrats retake power.

Democrats have revived their push to create a public option a government-run alternative that would be sold alongside private insurance on the ACA exchanges. The idea, which liberals unsuccessfully fought to include in the ACA, would be far less expensive than full single-payer since most Americans would still get coverage from traditional insurance. Another proposal is to allow older people to voluntarily buy into Medicare.

"Every major breakthrough from Civil Rights to Social Security to what happened on the right under Ronald Reagan were driven by significant mobilization behind an idea that was much more extreme than what actually happened," Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, who popularized the public option, told NBC News.

A few short years ago, Hacker's idea for a public option was killed by conservative Democrats involved in crafting Obamacare who saw it as too radical. Now, Hacker gets attacked by single-payer activists as a sellout for still favoring the idea.

Some politicians are trying to temper expectations. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., championed the Obamacare provision that allows states to enact their own single-payer plans, but noted that places like California and Vermont have had trouble finding a way to "get from here to there."

Instead, he hinted at a more gradual path to single-payer by passing legislation that would encourage more workers to buy insurance on an individual basis rather than through their employer. If you gave them access to a public option, he argues, it could grow to eventually become the dominant plan.

"You really strengthen the exchanges and probably provide another path for people actually advocating single-payer...to make the transition work," he said.

As for Conyers, who turned 88 a few months ago, hes willing to wait.

"I've said before, this is a civil rights issue and it'll take a movement on the scale of the one Dr. King led," he said. I'm glad we're here it shows we're making progress but my goal isn't a certain number of co-sponsors, it's passing a bill that makes every American Medicare-eligible."

See the article here:
Government-Run Health Care: Democrats' New Litmus Test - NBCNews.com

Now that Democrats have defeated a major plank of the Republican agenda, the question is whether that success will drive President Trump and the Republican leadership to the negotiating table and whether Mr. Schumer can keep Democrats who are up for election in red states in line and safe from defeat next year.

While Republicans have spent the last six months enmeshed in internal squabbling, Mr. Schumer has largely made sure Democrats stood on the sidelines. Mr. McConnell cut out Democrats on Day 1 of this Congress, using every method to bypass them on deregulation votes, cabinet confirmations, a tax overhaul and health care policy.

That has had a big impact, said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. If you leave out a whole political party, she said, and then you chasten them for not helping, well, that unites that party.

Yet Democrats give Mr. Schumer song-belting, frequently badgering, endlessly frenzied credit for his tireless attention to senators from every faction, and for quiet outreach to Republicans who he thinks could be partners down the line.

He has worked carefully far more than Mr. Reid, many Democrats agreed to be almost relentlessly inclusive, talking with them at all hours of the day, over every manner of Chinese noodle, on even tiny subjects, to make them feel included in strategy. Recently, as he sat in a dentists chair waiting for a root canal, he dialed up Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to talk about a coming judiciary hearing concerning Donald Trump Jr.

I think he makes it look easier than it is, Mr. Blumenthal said about Mr. Schumer.

Mr. Trumps election stunned him.

Mr. Schumers original plan after the election was to find a way to work with his fellow New Yorker on issues where he thought they might align, such as an infrastructure bill.

I take whats given me, Mr. Schumer, 66, said in a (shoeless) interview in his Capitol Hill office right off the Senate floor, one festooned with portraits of his idols (Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson), maps of New York and mildly goofy photos with other Democrats.

Fleeting dreams of using Mr. Trumps populism to triangulate against a Republican-controlled Congress dissolved, he said, when Mr. Trump instead decided to move right away to repealing the Affordable Care Act. So Mr. Schumer turned to an opposition agenda, doing everything within his limited powers to slow, block or obviate Mr. Trumps agenda.

Were in the minority, so were not making policy, Mr. Schumer said. We have to know when to dance and when to fight. The Trump administration has made it harder to dance.

For the fight, Mr. Schumer held together his disparate group of red state moderates, left-wing resistance fighters, hard-core policy wonks and everything in between, forming a partisan blast wall against Republican efforts to repeal the health care law, in part via maddening delays of basic Senate business.

Mr. Schumers schmoozing abilities have been important. He knows who I am, said Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, who is among the partys moderates in a state Mr. Trump won handily and who has largely opposed Mr. Trumps agenda.

I tell him when I think he is moving too far to the left, Mr. Manchin said, as when Mr. Schumer pushed to filibuster to block Mr. Trumps nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. There were no conversations with Harry.

It was not an article of faith that Mr. Schumer could do what he has done. With several Democrats up for re-election next year in states Mr. Trump won, both Republicans and Democrats assumed that those vulnerable lawmakers would be tempted to try to help unravel the health care law, vote for large tax cuts and the like.

He makes it clear to people that the opposition is about Medicaid cuts for the middle class and working class, not just the poor, Mr. Blumenthal said, explaining the rationale for fighting the health care law repeal. Its about opioid treatments, not just reproductive rights.

Mr. Schumers central weapon is procedural tricks to slow Mr. Trumps nominees, something that infuriates Mr. McConnell. I dont like it, and we are not going to do it as a practice, Mr. Schumer said, but when youre choosing a cabinet nominee, especially a controversial one, it makes sense.

All told, he said, his relationship with Mr. McConnell is an improvement over Mr. McConnells with Mr. Reid. Mr. Schumer has repeatedly told Mr. McConnell that Democrats would ease up on their obstruction once health care was behind them.

Ive known Chuck a long time, and he represents his state and his caucus well, Mr. McConnell said in an email before the health care vote. And while New York and Kentucky are very different places, we respect and work well with each other even if we are trying to achieve very different goals. The Senate as an institution functions through cooperation and constant conversations with the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Schumer committed one slight toward Mr. McConnell that baffled even his closest allies, voting against letting Mr. McConnells wife, Elaine Chao, become secretary of transportation.

She would not commit to spending money on transportation, Mr. Schumer said, even though most other Democrats gave her the nod. The move frosted Mr. McConnell, several Republicans said.

Mr. Schumer has watched Republicans struggle with moving from, in Speaker Paul Ryans words, an opposition party to a proposition party a major reason that Mr. Schumer and other Democrats recently rolled out a new economic message and policy platform for Senate and House Democrats.

He has recognized Democrats need a positive agenda, said Jim Manley, a former aide to Mr. Reid. And has begun putting that face before his caucus and the public.

Mr. Schumer seems to approach this with his usual blithesome manner, singing show tunes and the Shirelles as he races from phone call to meeting, sliding away from potential pests, a cellphone pressed to his face.

I love every single member of my caucus, he said. Oddly, this is likely true.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on July 30, 2017, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Schumer, With Songs And Persistence, Keeps The Democrats Together.

Read the original:
How Schumer Held Democrats Together Through a Health Care Maelstrom - New York Times