Bernie Sanders is Like A Popular Version of the Affordable Care Act

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As the Second World War raged in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared in his State of the Union Address that the United States needed a plan to ensure peace domestically and internationally by securing additional human rights. These new rights would allow people to live free of fear, without envy, and secure in their future. He called for, “a second Bill of Rights, under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all...”

The second Bill of Rights proposed by FDR included a right to; a useful and adequately paying job, adequate food, clothing, and leisure, farmers earning enough to support their families, an economy free of monopolies, a decent home, adequate medical care, freedom from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment, and a good education. Together these would free the populace to enjoy its Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, which are often denied to it by the overwhelming avarice of multinational corporations and vulture capitalists. For who has Liberty when they can't make enough to feed their family's, and who has Life when they earn a slave wage serving men pocketing four million every hour. When the wealthiest nation in the world has succeeded in freeing its citizens from the tyranny of poverty, leaving not a single citizen unclothed or unfed, the United States will be ready to lead a peaceful revolution across the globe as other nations follow its example.

Unfortunately, FDR died a year later with his dream unrealized, and the nation was led aside into a precipitous downward spiral with the deregulation and dismantling of the Social State by President Reagan. His tax cuts began in 1981, but those of '87 and '88 reduced the tax burden of the wealthiest enormously, at the expense of social programs for the nation's meekest. Economic inequality exploded over the next forty years as the policies of Reagan, Bush, and Bush Jr. allowed the top 1% of earners to vastly expanded their wealth at the expense of the public good.

During the 2016 Democratic Primary Bernie Sanders took up the mantle of FDR by pledging to secure for every citizen a second Bill of Rights. Political pundits have repeatedly criticized Sanders for taking unpopular stances, with opponents prophesying doom for the Democratic Party if he is their Presidential nominee, but polling tells a different story.

The Affordable Care Act, passed by President Obama and the Democratic party in 2010, was unpopular almost the entirety of Obama's presidency. It gained public support after Republicans tried to repeal it in 2017. The truth is, the populace liked the ACA all along, but they didn't realize it. Even in 2015, with the public disapproving of the Act 53% to 45%, they overwhelmingly supported every key component. The public liked that the law required coverage for prior conditions (85%), included subsidies for low income families (75%), expanded Medicaid (69%), covered children up to the age of 26 (68%), and created an employer mandate (61%). People disapproved of the law because Republican's lied about its contents.

Bernie Sanders, and the second Bill of Rights, are almost like the Affordable Care Act. His positions poll well independently, but establishment pundits dislike him. Yet, Bernie isn't an exact copy of the ACA, because in 2019 (even after, or because, of his 2016 primary run), Sanders polled as the most popular Senator in the United States.

What follows are a series of policies and corresponding polls, which demonstrate the power of Sander's platform. This is not to say that other Democratic nominees don't support this extensive list of policies, but most do not. The exception may be Elizabeth Warren, who, following Sander's lead, has similarly emphasized her willingness to be FDR's political heir. Even when candidates do espouse the following positions the question remains: have the candidates always supported these policies, or have they embraced them now they are popular? If so, who should voters trust to implement them?

It may surprise many to learn which policies are popular. For example, 54% of the population supports a jobs guarantee (with 26% opposed), like the one prescribed by FDR.


With the intrusion of tech companies into everyday life 66% of Americans support breaking up monopolies, like Amazon and Google, while 50% support breaking up big banks with only 14% opposed.


On the topic of healthcare, Americans are similarly progressive. Between 55% and 70% of respondents support Medicare for All, while 84% want the federal government to reduce the cost of prescription medication, and 48% (with 39% against), say the United States should support medical debt relief.

To safeguard their retirement, Americans believe the government should protect Social Security. With dire fears of it failing, conservatives say the program should be reduced, but 74% say no reductions should be made. The most popular solution (at 67% of Americans): higher incomes should have to pay the social security tax on all their wages, which are currently caped at $118,500. American's overwhelmingly do not want to increase the age to receive benefits (35%), increase Social Security taxes for all workers (34%), or reduce benefits for those current under age 55 (39%).

In a clear rejection of the Republican Tax Cut, Americans believe the wealthy have too much power, and 73% would support raising taxes on the wealthy, while 66% would support larger taxes on big corporations. 54% would even support a radical program to redistribute inordinate wealth from the wealthiest to the poorest.

Roughly 60% of Americans support free state colleges, as the cost of college has increased at three times the cost of living since 1978, while states have cut funding since the Great Recession. Another 60% support reducing the United States' reliance on fossil fuels, and 46% support (vs. 24%) ending cash bail and closing private prisons.

Obviously, this website does not speak for his campaign, but based on statements of Sanders, and a review of the policy section of his website, these seem like policies he supports. I attended his rally the day before the NH primary (more on that in another article), and he, along with the other speakers, mentioned many of these policies, and others as well.

Democratic politicians need to stop demonizing popular progressive programs, and instead remind voters how much they already support them, with the promise to implement them when they are elected.

That's how you win an election.
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