Liberal Dan Radio 1/20/2016: Election 2016 Coverage

On the January 20, 2016 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

Senator Bernie Sanders responds to the endorsement of Hillary Clinton by the HRC, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL by saying that his campaign is fighting the establishment. Senator/Secretary Clinton and those organizations all fired back. I will give my views on that story as well as some more commentary on why the infighting going on here could be disastrous for the election later this year.

In my debating the Cruz citizenship issue I found some more information to share on why he is eligible to run for President. Let’s beat him on the issues and not on manufactured attacks, ok?

Sarah Palin jumped into the fracas by endorsing Donald Trump for President. Is this going to make the election even more interesting? Youbetcha!

Those issues, tweet of the week, words of redneck wisdom, headlines, and more at 8pm Central on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

If you would like to support the podcast, please check out the Liberal Dan Radio GoFundMe Page.

Hillary Clinton makes a good point on healthcare.

Bernie Sanders has some very popular ideas when it comes to health coverage in this country. A lot of people on the left would like to see a “Medicare for all” where people’s taxes would pay for everyone to be covered regardless of income. This would eliminate the profit motive that many feel keep millions of Americans from becoming insured. I am not opposed to this idea in principle. I have also seen how the insurance companies have harmed individuals with their unethical business practices. Moving to the system that Senator Sanders is suggesting would help to eliminate that as well.

Hillary Clinton would rather us take a different approach to get universal coverage, in part because of the hurdles that would have to be cleared to reach Sanders goal vs hers. Back in President Obama’s first term the passage of Obamacare was a major fight. Part of that fight included giving up the “public option” in HR 3200 that would have allowed people to buy into a public health plan (like Medicare) on a sliding scale based on their ability to pay. The mechanisms for this were labelled “death panels” and HR 3200 was poisoned for the Senate version which sought universal coverage though more of a patchwork of Medicaid and subsidies.

Fighting that fight was difficult and could only be done because for a brief period of time the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate. The GOP could not stop the ultimate bill from being passed. The end result is we have an infrastructure in place that can handle the specifics of the Affordable Care Act. Can we afford to tear down that infrastructure and build a new one meant to handle what would be needed to implement the Sanders plan? Is it even mathematically possible for his plan to pass at all? The Democrats would need major swings in both houses, something that is exceedingly difficult in the House because of gerrymandering.

This is not to say that a hard fight is not one worth fighting. However, it is about keeping our feet grounded in reality while we advocate for the issues and candidates we support. It is unrealistic to believe that a President Sanders would be able to implement Medicare for all in his first term and he would likely be required to propose amendments to the Affordable Care Act to make any improvements to the law. Of course, this is the primary season and politicians say what their ideals are now and then temper their campaigning to be closer to reality when the general election rolls around.

Liberal Dan Radio 1/13/2016: Never Quote Me The Odds!

On the January 13, 2016 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

The record breaking $1.5 billion Powerball drawing is tonight. Do you have your tickets? I do have mine, but I also am seeing a lot of people out there with some really bad math. I will go over some of the crazy things I have heard people say when it comes to the Powerball.

The State of the Union Address came on last night. It was a really great speech and Obama hit it out of the park. I will go over some of the major points, the couple times the President stole my thunder and the one time I stole his.

Finally, when Liberal Dan Radio warned you about the dangers of the Michigan law that allows the Governor to install a city manager in “failing cities”, I never thought it would be a deadly decision. I will give my thoughts on these ridiculous laws and explain why this should prove the GOP is absolutely not the party of small government.

Those issues, headlines, tweet of the week, and more this week at 8pm Central on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

Remember, if you want to support the show you can always make a contribution at the show’s Go Fund Me page.

Liberal Dan Radio 1/6/2016: VanillaISIS, Guns, and Birthers

On the first episode of Liberal Dan Radio for 2016:

A militia group has taken over a federally owned building in Oregon and has exposed many hypocrisies in politics and public safety. I will discuss those examples of hypocrisy.

President Obama wrote an executive order expanding the amount of people required to hold federal firearms licenses and conduct background checks. I will explain why this is not him writing new law but instead dealing with an imperfectly written law that wont get fixed because of GOP obstruction.

I will also be discussing Ted Cruz and his eligibility for President. Is he qualified? Are there hypocrites supporting him? I will go into all of the possibilities.

Those topcis and more on Wedesday January 6th, 2016 at 8pm Central.