Sunday School 11/3/19

I stuck my head into a couple of classrooms today - Mayor Pete Buttigieg on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and Andrew Yang, who talked with Chuck Todd on NBC's Meet the Press. We'll take them in that order.

George started by asking about it being a two-way race between him and Senator Elizabeth Warren, as Buttigieg suggests it might be becoming. He said it's not that, yet, but he sees a lot of energy around his campaign, on the ground and in polling. That polling shows him rising to fourth, with support for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders staying relatively flat. In general, George wondered what separates him from Warren.

I guess the biggest difference is I think we can deliver major, meaningful, bold change to move this country forward in a way that galvanizes an American majority instead of polarizing our country further.

He's running not just to beat Trump, Buttigieg said, but to be the president on the first day after Trump is out of office who has to bring the country back together.

...I’m offering a presidency where you can look at the White House and feel your blood pressure go down instead of up. We have got to find a way to come together and deliver bold solutions at the same time.

George noted that Warren seemed to suggest Buttigieg was pushing Republican talking points in opposing her on Medicare for All (M4A).  Mayor Pete said the insurance companies don't like his proposal, and

This my way or the highway idea, that either you're for kicking everybody off their private plans in four years or you're for business as usual, it's just not true... The difference is, the way I would do it, you get to keep your private plan if you want to. I trust you to make that decision.

He also said that M4A might be the end destination, but that Washington shouldn't be ordering people what to do. Under his plan, if people think M4A is right for them, they'll take it, and if it's not, they won't. He says his plan is "the boldest thing we will have done to American healthcare in half a century." And, his plan costs $1.5 trillion over 10 years, instead of $20 trillion or more, which is what Warren's plan will cost.

Asked if he can guarantee he won't raises taxes on the middle class, he said all of his plans are paid for, and he's not proposed any tax increases on the middle class. We can get a lot of money to pay for things from loopholes in the corporate tax system and from the wealthiest Americans, not by looking at the middle class to solve the problems.

He also said that not raising taxes on the middle class requires that he only makes promises he can keep; he also that his policies are either budget neutral or save money. And

...if Democrats don't get into the business of paying attention to the debt, nobody will. And for my generation, that's a real problem, because I think these financial time bombs could very well go off in my lifetime.

George asked about him not making headway with African-American voters.Buttigieg said said his message is about tearing down systemic racism "in all of its forms..."

The plan I have put forward, the Douglass Plan, is as ambitious as the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, but this time right here at home. And it's for the purpose of tearing down systemic racism... We have got to look at all of society, where this might as well be two countries for so many Americans...

His plan covers everything from black entrepreneurship to home ownership to voting rights - the whole gamut. His responsibility, he said, was to go out and communicate the plan so everyone understands where he's coming from. As he has said before, the way to win over any voter is to deserve their vote.

About how his being gay impacts black voters and others, "What can you do about that, if anything?"  He said the biggest thing voters think about when trying to decide who to vote for is

How will my life be different if you're president vs. one of your competitors? That's the question we have got to answer. And when we have the best answer to that question, I think a lot of prejudices and a lot of those other considerations fall away, and it comes down to vision and results.

And, in response to Trump's new 'no more Mr. Nice Guy' ad, Mayor Pete said that the ad put "a tough guy coating on a weak individual" and that he's "ready to go toe-to-toe" with Trump.

Now, moving over to MTP and Andrew Yang, Chuck Todd asked him if he accepted the description a Politico writer gave about him, that  "Of his party's presidential contestants, he's the cheerful doomsayer." Yang described himself as a "hard-eyed realist about what's happening in our economy" and, he said, as we see stores and malls close (because of Amazon),

We have to create a new way forward and rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for us. But that doesn't mean we have to be necessarily very gloomy as we deliver what, to me, is the most important message of our time. And it's the reason why our campaign is growing and growing while other candidates are dropping out.

On candidates who have said that we need to bring jobs back, and Yang basically saying that it's not going to happen, Todd wondered if we're going to have too many people and not enough work over the next several decades. Yang noted we're "in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in our country's history," and then described the benefit of his freedom dividend, saying

putting buying power into our hands will build a trickle up economy and allow us to create hundreds of thousands of jobs here in Iowa and across the country, because that money doesn't disappear. It goes into local businesses and daycare services and car repairs, little league sign ups. So this is the way we actually rejuvenate main street America, by putting the gains of the 21st century economy into our hands, where it can actually support what's happening in our families and communities every day.

Todd wondered if this would be "permanent entitlement of sorts?" Yang reminded him that Alaska has basically been doing this for almost 40 years, with their payments of the petroleum dividend,

And there, it decreases income inequality. It makes children and families stronger. It's wildly popular after almost 40 years. And so there's no reason to think it will not be wildly popular throughout the whole country. They pay for it with oil money in Alaska. But what I'm saying to the American people is that technology is the oil of the 21st century.

Moving to healthcare,Todd askedwhy, "if we haven't fully implemented Obamacare, should we rip it up and start over?" Yang said he was a fan of "themes" of Obamacare, but that "many Americans agree it didn't go far enough..." Todd mentioned the lack of Medicare expansion to all 50 states as an indicator of the incomplete implementation. Yang suggested there was a reason for that, saying

So we need to create a path forward for Americans to have access to care. I would not get rid of private insurance. And to me, the 'pay for' argument is misplaced because we're already spending 18% of GDP, almost four trillion dollars, in large part because the system is not designed to keep us strong and healthy. It's designed to make money for the private insurance companies and the device manufacturers and the drug companies.

Sadly, they didn't talk more about that, but instead moved to impeachment; Todd asked if what Trump did was "such an egregious act that he shouldn't be on the ballot in 2020?" Yang is for impeachment, he said,

But the fact is, when we're talking about Donald Trump, we are not presenting a new way forward and a positive vision for the country that Americans will get excited about. That's the only way we're going to win in 2020. And that's the only way we're going to start actually solving the problems that got him elected. Even when we're talking about impeaching Donald Trump, we're talking about Donald Trump, and we are losing.

Todd came back with the fact that Yang talks about Trump in his rallies, trying to appeal to former Trump supporters, it seems. Yang challenged that a bit.

Well, if you listen to my rally speech, Chuck, the vast majority of it is just about the challenges that Americans are experiencing every single day. These challenges preceded Donald Trump. They will still be with us after Donald Trump is out of office.

He said that if we don't solve the problems,

then we're just going to be trapped in this endless food fight. And the American people deserve much, much better.

Pivoting again, Todd moved to criticism of Yang for using Asian-American stereotypes to describe himself; the criticism is coming from other Asian-Americans.

I am very proud of my heritage and I'm very proud of being the first Asian American man to run for president as a Democrat. And I think Americans are smart enough and savvy enough to know a joke when they hear it. I think that dragging some of these myths into the light actually makes them less powerful and helps dispel them.

Continuing to stay away from anything having to do with Yang's policies, Todd asked about "some white supremacist started saying nice things about your candidacy" and wondered if Yang was bothered by this group being attracted to his candidacy.

Well, I've completely disavowed any sort of support from anyone who has those kinds of ideas. I mean, I'm the son of immigrants myself. But to me, we have to solve the real problems of this time. And attacking each other for poor word choice or things that are of marginal importance to the American people, unfortunately, takes our focus away from the real problems on the ground that got Donald Trump elected.

And here's how Todd closed the interview:

Andrew Yang, entrepreneur. Again, you have taken this Democratic primary and made a lot of people take you a lot more seriously than they had planned to...

He might as well have added

But dammit, I'm not one of them And we're not going to talk about things that you think are important, or your policies or anything, we're going to focus on the BS stuff that, as you point out, doesn't really matter all that much to anyone." 

Honestly, I wish he had said that - at least it would show he's aware of how badly he treats the candidates.

As usual, there was too much going on today for one recap. Keep an eye out for an Extra Credit post covering what some of the Rs were talking about.

See you around campus.