Now that the newly elected Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has decided that political reform will be their number one legislative priority (HR 1), what are the next most important priorities?
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It seems to me that there are two very simple things that Democrats can do with their new House majority this January to stake out a progressive path forward on key issues likely to impact the 2020 elections:
a) Pass a simple bill that authorizes Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices, and…
b) Pass another simple bill that eliminates the income cap on Social Security (the cap on the amount of income that’s taxed for Social Security purposes).
Those two things will accomplish a large number of other things that would, to my way of thinking, strongly position Democrats for greater success later on, even if these bills are not immediately passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president any time soon.
The first action, voting to enable Medicare to negotiate on behalf of tens of millions of people for lower drug prices, will put health care front and center. And...instead of a complicated fight over a health care system that Democrats can’t win with Republicans in control of the Senate and White House right now, it will lay down a clear path forward for reducing healthcare costs and continue to pave the way toward universal healthcare (by establishing the federal government as the best “negotiator” to deal directly with health care companies and health care costs). It will also serve as a preemptive measure to any further Republican efforts to undermine our march toward universal healthcare. It makes sense, has wide public support, and will put a lot of Republicans in the awkward position of having to vote for or against a sane, rational, fair approach to reduce healthcare costs for everyone. It would also help to dramatically reduce Medicare costs, further making it extremely difficult for Republicans to vote against. And it will also highlight the fact that the Republican Party itself is owned, bought and paid for by Big Pharma.
As far as Social Security...we all know that some kind of action needs to be taken for it to continue to pay full benefits beyond 2034. Just like the Medicare proposal, the proposal to eliminate the cap will put Republicans on the spot by providing a simple, rational and fair approach toward addressing this issue. It’s a common sense solution and stakes out a fair, equitable position that will simply ensure that everyone pays the same percentage of their income into the Social Security trust fund. (Unlike today, when those earning above a certain amount of money ($128,400) pay a significantly lower percentage of their income into Social Security.)
Even if you don’t think that these are the two best ways to address health care and shore up Social Security, these two simple steps would help Democrats frame the issues in a way that puts fairness first and would be appealing to a wide cross-section of the public, including voters in rural areas and independents, two key groups Democrats will need to win future elections.
These are simple, easily-understood solutions that have the potential to give Democrats very strong political messaging heading into 2020. And they are easy-to-convey messages that can help to galvanize support for progressive solutions.