Comments by "Brandon M" (@brandonm949) on "'The View' BLOWS UP After Sunny Schools Conservative Co-Host" video.

@SonicBoomC98 The world average for military spending is 2.2% of GDP. Last time I checked, the US spends 3.4% of its GDP on defense. Plus, the defense sector is one of the most wasteful in the US economy. It bleeds all kinds of money into failed projects, unneeded weapons, executive salaries, etc. We could probably find $200B of pure waste to cut. There's absolutely no reason our defense budget needs to be as large as it is.
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The problem is messaging. If Americans' inability to afford housing and medical care actually informed their vote, Democrats would win in a landslide every time, as they're clearly the only ones who want to solve these problems. Too many Americans get swayed by Republicans exploiting their resentment of the poor, LGBTQ people, racial minorities, immigrants, Muslims, smug liberals, "socialism", etc. We do need to find a better way to outmessage that.
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@SonicBoomC98 To the extent that the general public isn't where progressives are on the issue, yes, fair enough. It's a lot like "defund the police" - I think it's a good policy but we need to argue it better and give it more time before we make it a major campaign piece, because the general public just isn't there yet. The actual answer to "How do we pay for Medicare for All?" is "With the money we pay now for private insurance". It's just swapping out one form of insurance for a different one. And Medicare is more efficient than private insurers on account of it not needing to pay for marketing, stock dividends, and fat CEO bonuses. If anything, it should cost us less.
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Independents are largely a myth. Most independents are people who consistently vote for one party but don't want to label themselves as a member of the party. Actual swing voters are only 5-10% of the electorate.
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