Jul 12 2020

The Breakfast Club (Cold Pizza)

AP’s Today in History for July 12

Julius Caesar born; Walter Mondale taps Geraldine Ferraro as the first woman to run on a major party ticket for the White House; Boris Yeltsin quits the Soviet Communist Party; Oscar Hammerstein born.

Breakfast Tune Hide Head Blues (banjo cover)

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

Something to think about over coffee prozac

Biden Defends Undying Allegiance to For-Profit Healthcare During Interview With Dying Medicare for All Advocate Ady Barkan
Jon Queally, Common Dreams

After studiously avoiding a face-to-face interview during the Democratic presidential primary, presumptive nominee Joe Biden finally agreed to answer questions from Medicare for All advocate Ady Barkan, a progressive activist who suffers from the terminal and degenerative disease known as ALS.

In a video of their exchange posted online Wednesday, the former vice president defends his commitment to the nation’s private insurance industry and says that while “he fully gets” why so many people are fed up with for-profit insurance companies and the employer-based coverage—and even amid a raging pandemic that many argue has further exposed the system’s cruelty and inefficiencies—he still remains steadfastly opposed to Medicare for All as a viable alternative.

“It’s no secret that I support Medicare for All,” says Barkan about mid-way through their exchange to which Biden interjects: “I don’t.”

During the primary, Barkan was able to interview most of the top Democratic contenders—including Medicare for All champion Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who Barkan later endorsed—but Biden refused to accept repeated invitations.

Finally given a chance to challenge the former vice president with pointed questions on the subject of healthcare, Barkan asks Biden: “Do you see a future where health insurance is no longer tied to employment? Will America ever have a single payer system where health care is guaranteed as a human right?”

“Health care guaranteed as a human right,” Biden responds, “but taking away the right to have a private plan if you want a private plan, I disagree with.”

Healthy California Now, which advocates for both Medicare for All and a state-based single-payer solution, lamented that Biden—”running for president during a global pandemic and economic collapse”—had the ability to look Barkan “in the eye” and tell him “flippantly” he opposes Medicare for All, “the only compassionate and efficient solution” to the national crisis.
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