Cory Booker & Jeff Merkley announce support for Bernie's Medicare for all

[Gass3268]

Let's be honest, if Baldwin and Brown weren't up for reelection next year in states that Trump won, they'd both be cosponsoring here. Disappointing, but I get it.

Apparently someone forgot to tell Baldwin she's up for re-election.. Becomes the first vulnerable 2018 Dem to sign on.

I was wrong, good for her!

[MAINEiac4434]

Surprised Merkley wasn't already backing it. Also that's nice Cory.

Apparently a black man from New Jersey is more progressive than some white savior from Oregon that berniebros have latched onto instead.

He's more white than black.

Well, I guess someone from lily-white Vermont to decide who gets to be black and who doesn't.

[Shadows]

Let's be honest, if Baldwin and Brown weren't up for reelection next year in states that Trump won, they'd both be cosponsoring here. Disappointing, but I get it.

Apparently someone forgot to tell Baldwin she's up for re-election.. Becomes the first vulnerable 2018 Dem to sign on.

I was wrong, good for her!

Sanders & progressives should throw their weight behind her. They have to ensure her re-election & get a strong turnout for her.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Human rights protect individuals from others, and are not related to tangible goods or services. Nobody is entitled to the property or labor of others without compensation. Everyone has the right to life, but that does not mean a right to food, water, shelter, or healthcare, since all of those are tangible goods and services that belong to someone.

That does not mean, that as a civilized society that believes in human rights, (a relatively modern concept that was not recognized for most of human history) we do not have certain responsibilities towards those who cannot provide for themselves, but collective obligations are not human rights.

I checked OED and it defines 'right' as "A moral or legal entitlement to have or do something". Nothing about whatever nonsense you've asserted without any backing. I can define a pig to mean an animal with five legs, doesn't make it true.

And it says nothing about tangible goods or services, so I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. Life, freedom, and citizenship are "things" that all individuals are entitled to, but not tangible things like food or drugs. All goods and services belong to someone, and if you believe in property rights, you cannot simultaneously believe that people have a birthright to the goods and services of others without compensation.

Even if I were to accept this distinction, I find the line of argument rather strange. To uphold any of my rights (citizenship, speech, life) requires the existence of a police force and public courts system which is maintained by taking from the property of others via taxation. If no-one ever had any rights-based claim to the property of others then there would be no rights enforceable whatsoever. The right to healthcare isn't any different from the right to not be enslaved.

This is why people hate libertarians: they live in a realm of abstraction and think they can argue from their dumb first principles to the real world without stopping to think how silly it is.

A right is a right when the community agrees it exists as a right. It's not complicated.

[Dr. MB]

The idea that healthcare is a right is the greatest affront to individual liberty since slavery.

How so? If anything, it increases liberty – the right to a long life, for example.

[Shadows]

The idea that healthcare is a right is the greatest affront to individual liberty since slavery.

How so? If anything, it increases liberty – the right to a long life, for example.

Pro-lifers opposing Universal Healthcare ehh!!!! Maybe Pope Francis should campaign for this.

[Lord Admirale]

Will you stop worshipping Pope Francis. My God, this is so cringey.

And stick to one thread on this bill, please.

[Lord Admirale]

Oh wow they're both holding birds and neither will ever be President. They share so much in common.