Capn - I had the same thought about Rachel Maddow's show -- bc she hits 'em between the eys -- and she does give factual news -- and when wrong admits error.

I notice that Ed and Lawrence are focusing on "people" rather than factual news = i.e. they've become real "talking heads" --

And so they are no longer interesting bc they say the obvious -- flip/flop of Trump's rhetoric and not ansering questions + Romey's MA "medical plan" errors. Lawrence looked promising but has wilted.

Let's not forget who pays the freight of election campaigns -- it's the corporations, some of which own the media, while others buy their ad time. And the Supreme Court has now made those corporations "supreme." If we could ever pry the campaigns from the gluttonous corporate fists -- and TV comes over electromagnetic channels that are national property! -- we might have a democracy in more than empty slogans. Meanwhile we have Rachel -- I hope she survives the "interests" that hogtied Keith.

Funny thing, even Rachel doesn't cut to the chase: The progressive budget cuts military spending, and proposes a public option; those are anti-corporate policies, and they are highly effective in balancing the budget. OOPS. Yeah, not only is this not rocket science -- it's not even complicated.

The US is a dysfunctional and failed state. It cannot resolve even simple problems -- like healthcare. The private, for profit system we have is a failure. Everyone in the world knows that, except for the few people who read news on MSM channels or write it in newspapers and the few people bribed in congress.

The simply solution is the one we already have -- Medicare for All. Write a one page bill in congress saying that everyone who wants Medicare can buy in. Those who don't, can continue to buy private, for profit insurance. Over time, everyone will be in Medicare because the privates will simply not compete. They will purge anyone with health problems and sooner or later everyone has a health problem.

This will never happen in the US. The US is not capable of making a rational decision as a nation. The US will go bankrupt and collapse before it makes a rational decision.

How to share the cost? Too many public retirement giveaways? Who believed those levels they thought their pension plan investments (in private, AAA rated investments) were supposed to bring in?

How do we explain that they aren't going to get the returns they thought they would (without expecting taxpayers to pick up the shortfall)? Were they too optimistic? Were they sold by honest agents, unaffected by the bonuses, commissions, high fees, easy creation of debt instruments, and side bets they could make with such large pools of supposed asset value?

How dare (tongue-in-cheek) those public employees keep the forecast benefits of those investments (and the "benefits" of privatized, monetized, medicine)? Tell them to get in line behind those financial sector types (all over the world) that we rescued, and thank their lucky stars they are better off than the private sector middle class who used to make, and keep, more than public workers did.

Let's throw them at least partially under the bus to save the rest of us. Who knows, if they will take less, perhaps the holders of the millions of mortgages that are upside down will take less? (But isn't that the case if their investments relied too heavily on those mortgages?)

Is the answer to rely more heavily on those that sold us those "investments"?

I've been wondering lately if we can sustain a democracy in a country as huge, populous, and now, fragmented and ideologically stubborn as the U.S. is. Maybe we are just too big and with too many media that do not care about anything except profits--and defeating any liberal, progressive, democratic agenda. Or compromDespite all the many divisions and controversy in our past, I think Americans (excluding the Native Americans and the Blacks, of course) were more or less united on some basic ideas. We fought a terrible war to keep us together and most of us preferred that. We united during WWII, and came together in the postwar period over recovery and even helping others with the Marshall Plan--imagine doing that now. We rebuilt ourselves after the war with a huge national highway system, and we built houses, and we sent G.I.s to school, launching one of the greatest eras of prosperity we've ever known.
I don't think we could do a single one of those things now.
And, let's not go into global climate change; if this world survives, our descendants are going to wonder what kind of idiots and screwballs we were.
Nor could we be frightened into fear to do idiotic things like overruling the constitution--not as much, anyway. And we didn't have small nation-states with not much military seriously finding ways to attack us.

Rachel,

You have the platform to bring the Progressive Budget Plan to all. Do it! send it to members of congress, newspaper and progressive publications.

The reason the progressive budget plan isn't on the table is the same reason impeachment of the Bush regime for war crimes was never on the table and the same reason single payer was never on the table. It's the same reason there was no coverage of the thousands of young people marching to stop global warming was not covered. It's the same reason the largest worldwide demonstrations in history to get CO2 levels to 350 ppm were not covered by the national media It's the same reason the tiniest tea bagger gatherings get extensive coverage. It's called censorship and propaganda, and it permeates the national media. Even PBS and NPR do it regularly, although they aren't nearly as bad as the corporate-owned media. This is the biggest threat to democracy we've ever faced, and it keeps getting worse.

A great way for the Progressive Budget Plan to get publicity is for some charismatic Progressive to announce that he/she will challenge President Obama in the Democratic Presidential Primary. This would get a spotlight on the budget and many other issues as well. It would also challenge the President to seriously consider and face a truly Progressive agenda.

When, oh when will any so called lefty cover the all cuts, anti-union, corporate tax cutting budget in the great state of Washington?
Talk about a bad budget. But NO, can't mention it because the Dems control the Leg and Gov.