Deeply dishonest Kamala Harris and MFA

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You might remember this image from the debate. It's when the moderator asked who supported Medicare For All.

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris raised their hands at the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate when asked if they would abolish private health insurance, and the fraught politics of Medicare-for-all revealed themselves again.

It was a repeat of a question moderators asked the first night, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said they wanted to end private coverage. Sanders and Harris said yes, which didn’t seem like a surprise: They are both sponsors of Sanders’s Medicare-for-all bill that would eliminate private insurance and move every American into a single national government insurance plan after a transition period.

So far so good.
She's a cosponsor of MFA and she got a straight question.

But after the debate, Harris said she interpreted the question to mean whether she, personally, would get rid of her own employer insurance to join a government plan. NBC’s Lester Holt set it up by noting many Americans — about half of them actually — get insurance through their job. But he actually asked: “Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” and that could arguably be interpreted as asking the candidates about their own insurance.

But does Harris actually support prohibiting private health insurance?

“No, I do not,” the California senator told MSNBC after the debate. She noted to CBS that Sanders’s bill allowed supplemental private insurance, though that coverage would be forbidden from covering most major medical care. Most treatment would be covered and paid for by a single government plan.

She was confused about the question?
This seems extremely unlikely.
Kamala Harris was the most over-prepared person on that stage.
Her "food fight" line was obviously tested with a panel beforehand, and that's not the most obvious example.

Harris herself ended up settling on a line that within minutes would appear in social media memes and just a few hours later would be screen printed on t-shirts selling for $29 on her website: “That little girl was me,” she said, of her desegregated class.

So her campaign staff were ready to capitalize on her debate performance within minutes with t-shirts? That stretches credulity.
But the biggest tell is that this wasn't the first time she's made this "mistake".

It was also not the first time Harris had appeared to endorse a prohibition on private insurance only to try to clarify afterward. The same sequence of events played out during and after a CNN town hall in January — Harris initially seemed to support a more rigid version of Medicare-for-all, then later walked it back.

She "supports" MFA in public. She doesn't in private.
And she's done this twice. The most over-prepared person out there.
To say that this is unlikely is an understatement.

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I haven't verified this yet

But it was all a lie.
Harris said she was a student in only the second class to integrate at Berkeley public schools.

Not true.

Kamala’s parents were successful professionals. Kamala went to school in Berkeley for only 2 years. She then moved with her mother at age seven to Canada where she attended grade school and high school.

Kamala Harris was born in 1964

She claims she was only the second class to integrate at the Berkeley public schools.

Kamala lied.
Actually the classrooms in Berkeley were already integrated in 1963 — before she was born.

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@gjohnsit
if berkeley had only one high school at that time, it would have been integrated by default, not by bussing. there might, on the other hand, have been de facto segregation of the elementary schools (based on de facto housing segregation), and berkeley might have decided (or been ordered) during KH's time there to implement a desegregation plan that bussed kids out of their own neighborhoods so as to integrate the elementary schools.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@gjohnsit
Here's a useful link.

As I suspected, there was a single high school, so it had to be integrated, but the neighborhood elementary schools were segregated by the demographic realities of the city. Berkeley's two-way bussing scheme (send the white kids to schools in black neighborhoods, and vice versa) was a big deal at the time, with plenty of news coverage, including national news coverage.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd essentially true. The only issue, not likely to concern primary voters, is on the matter of federally-mandated bussing to desegregate, as Berkeley decided to do it voluntarily.

Which leaves us with M4A and private insurance, where KH has appeared clearly to waffle and do the flip-flop thing which got John Kerry (2004) in so much trouble.

One thing Dems can start doing is to object to the premise of these loaded and fraught Raise Your Hand/Yes or No stupid questions which can be deeply misleading, simplified usually with a right-wing slant or tone. For instance, Bernie answered Yes on eliminating private insurance cos, yet it's my understanding that his proposal actually allows them to offer supplemental insurance for elective/cosmetic procedures, and possibly even more things that can be conceived at the margins (e.g., private coverage to get 5-star procedures or same-day appointments, etc).

Bernie needs to improve on explaining his plan, and Harris needs to stop misleading, trying to have it both ways to please both wings of her party (and possibly some big insurance donors).

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@wokkamile It probably is illegal to deprive people of the option to buy insurance. It is a bit like depriving people of the right to have a private education. If it is legal to make or produce any particular product, then it is likely illegal to prohibit the purchase of it.

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@davidgmillsatty it being illegal, as the fed gov't, per the Constitution, has very broad powers to tax and spend and "provide for the general welfare". Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP being 3 major examples. It could be argued in favor of, say, Bernie's proposal, that allowing private insurance to offer the same coverage as M4A would undermine that program.

But I might be interested to see your legal/constitutional argument.

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@UntimelyRippd

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boriscleto's picture

@gjohnsit And she moved with her mother to Canada when she was 12. Her mother was hired to be a professor at the top college in Canada, and she went to the best public high school. Then she chose to go to a historically black university (Howard), and joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

snoopydawg's picture

Kambama would not be a good president. She's running on the same playbook that Obama did. Pretend to be more progressive than you are, but once in office turn your back on those that voted for you. This is what she did when she ran for attorney general.

Kamala Harris Is a Cop Who Wants To Be President

The California senator and former prosecutor has a long record of pushing illiberal policies.

People who have been involved in the black lives matter movement and have long been upset with what cops have gotten away with are saying that they will vote for Harris even with her record of not helping blacks. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg

People who have been involved in the black lives matter movement and have long been upset with what cops have gotten away with are saying that they will vote for Harris even with her record of not helping blacks. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?

Answers:
1. Hypocrisy
2. Stupid
3. Both

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edg's picture

She supports Sanders plan which allows supplemental private insurance, much like current Medigap plans. What am I missing in this essay that utterly destroys her?

Also, on busing, she was in the 2nd year of elementary busing. What am I missing about this topic that utterly destroys her? Per the Berkeley School District:

June 28, 2019

The History of Integration in Berkeley Elementary Schools and Senator Harris

We have received multiple requests from media about Senator Kamala Harris and her experience with the Berkeley Public Schools. Senator Harris is correct in describing her experience in 1969 as the second year of the busing integration program. All Berkeley elementary schools were integrated through an innovative two-way busing plan, which was implemented voluntarily by our district beginning in 1968.

There has been some confusion in the media and social media around the Berkeley schools and integration due to the fact that our high school was already “integrated”, as evidenced, for example, by high school yearbooks which show children of many race/ethnicities at school together prior to 1968. In Berkeley, we only have one comprehensive high school, so it was integrated by default (de facto). Our elementary schools, however, reflected the racial composition of our neighborhoods, which like many neighborhoods across America reflected the history of segregation stemming from policies which restricted the opportunities of non-white residents.

We recently celebrated the 50 year anniversary of our voluntary busing plan, and you can find additional details here, including a chart showing the racial composition of our elementary schools in 1963 compared to 1969.

I neither like nor dislike Harris. But it seems that essays like this are arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin instead of advancing progressive causes.

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@edg

She supports Sanders plan which allows supplemental private insurance, much like current Medigap plans. What am I missing in this essay that utterly destroys her?

She has a public position and a private position. Like Clinton.
I thought I explained that.

But it seems that essays like this are arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin instead of advancing progressive causes.

That sounds suspiciously like you are saying I want a Purity Pony.

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edg's picture

@gjohnsit

In the first quote, it says she's a co-sponsor of Sanders bill. That seems pretty clear. In the second, she points out that Sanders' bill has a supplemental private insurance provision. That also seems pretty clear. Do you have something more definitive that shows her having two different positions, because I don't get that from the quotes you put in this essay.

In summary, she co-sponsored Sanders' bill. It has a private insurance provision. Therefore, she isn't abolishing private insurance. Is prohibiting private health insurance good or bad? Since Sanders' bill doesn't prohibit it, is Sanders' bill flawed and is Sanders deeply dishonest, too?

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Jen's picture

I never paid much attention to her. All I see when I look at her is a pig in lipstick. I have this flaw where I dehumanize every pig. It's just me mirroring what they project. They certainly don't see any of us "civvies" as human (unless you're related - maybe), so why should I see them as anything but pigs? Especially knowing good and well that any damn one of them would shoot me in the back for not listening to them. So, of course she's deeply dishonest - she's a pig.

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Is it great yet?