Any amount that would be a true basic income would unaffordable.

Those folks have too much money and they are destroying the world with it. Take it to make sure people can afford to live.

...is around $6 trillion...so, we confiscate everything they have, and we have enough to pay UBI at $20,000/adult/year...for one year.

Most would agree that $20,000 is not really enough to survive, if that's all you have coming in, so make it $52,000/year...now you're looking at over $13 trillion.

Total federal revenue right now is around $4.7 trillion...do you believe that we would be able to almost triple that? I don't.

Like you said...

Every penny of the billionaires would fund ONE YEAR of UBI.

Then what?

And taxing AI will handicap it. Ai is a lot more than a utility to replace human work.

Benefits of extreme wealth activities are private, while the costs are borne by the public.

We need policies to balance that out. I don't know what they are yet, but the financialization of housing, healthcare, and industry is creating heavy burdens on society, and distorting market forces that used to keep things more balanced.

How do you propose to manage those negative externalities? Taxpayers cannot absorb all the costs of their negative impacts, especially when incomes are below the cost of living for many.

I think sometimes we just need to reframe "problems" to unloosen thinking about possible solutions.

We all know that inequality is bad for a lot of people. But no one thinks you can make all people equal. Framing of the "problem" limits our imagination about possible solutions.

If the problem is understood as how extreme wealth externalizes its costs to the rest of society, it prompts different thinking about possible solutions.

Enabled by regulatory capture.

It's everything they own right down to their kitchen knives.

Are you seriously suggesting that the government confiscate all of their personal belonging AND SpaceX, Tesla, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, Walmart, Alphabet, Inc. in order to give everyone a single check for $20,000??

I was responding to someone saying that we could “tax the oligarchy” to pay for UBI, and pointing out that if we confiscated everything from the oligarchy, it still wouldn’t be enough to pay for UBI

But to campaign on them would bring a backlash against Dems by the big donors and oligarchs.

I think a focus on reestablishing and protecting essential rights, including reproductive rights is critical.

Raising the minimum wage to $20/hr would be at least as popular as “no tax on tips”.

Capping/negotiating prescription drug prices would be a winner.

Reinstating the child tax credit that was in place during COVID would also be popular.

Above all, Court expansion and ethical reform, and killing the filibuster to pass it, are top of my list, because without court expansion, nothing else that might be in the Dem platform is possible.

Take the fight to the oligarchs and corporations. Seriously, they don't support us anyway and are destroying the world. They paid for the mess we are in. Educate the public on how to go around them to blunt their disastrous impacts on our daily lives.

Raising the minimum wage--> change it to a liveable wage, based on local COL.

Very few younger people working in fast food... it's almost entirely 25-45 year old folks with experience in the hospitality industry.
They work circles around the typical fast food kids...

And I pay... $13 for a standard size 1/4lb with cheese, fries and medium Coke.

There is no dedicated person to keeping the dining room clean or the trash empty and not even a dedicated person at one of the TWO cash registers

Want a refill on your Diet Coke at McDonalds?

Then flag someone down from back in the drive-thru area... yeah they moved the soda machine back there.

Used to live in CA, my daughter still does.

I figured since the federal minimum wage is $7.75 or something like that, raising it $20 would benefit the most people living in those states that adhere to the federal minimum wage.

$20/hr is probably the highest that could get passed, assuming we have at least 52 seats in the senate, as I expect Fetterman would vote against it. Remember, Manchin and Sinema sabotaged $15/hr.

As long as I can remember, CA has always had a state legislated minimum wage above the federal, so I would expect the state to raise it as they usually do.

This link indicates that a quarter pounder meal in Omaha, NE will run you $14.69.

Think Nebraska has a $20 minimum wage? I don't.

So I'm not quite sure you've nailed cause and effect here.

A simple message on immigration:
No open borders
No police state

Both are lawless. It gets rid of the open borders label for the Dems and links that disfavor to Trump's police state. Points to the middle for sanity.

that Dems have no ideas other than TDS.

Every time I hear some “Democratic Consultant” or some YouTube grifter employ the false trope that Democrats just run on “I’m not Trump” I’m gonna call bullshit.

That being said, despite her false framing I appreciate that ‘Celinda Lake’ is putting forth some good suggestions. Do you have a link to Lake’s post so we can read more?

No need to reinvent the wheel. Just update it.

that whenever we are in office, very little happens. We have ideas. But the needle doesn't move very far. We have big goals. But do HUGE things like universal health care happen? No.

Then the republicans get in office and they make HUGE sweeping changes. I am horrified by the huge changes that are happening at the moment, but I think we need ask ourselves WHY when we are in power... we seem to have an aww, shucks, can't get nothing done, gotta play by the rules sort of attitude, and when they are in power, they do things.

I have to wonder if we rolled up our sleeves and were a little less dainty about it, if we would roll in change with slashing drug prices and universal health care and if people would get so used to those things being provided to everyone and not having to go bankrupt to afford your meds that they would not be willing to go back.

Biden especially got a shit-ton done with a very very divided Congress. Drug prices were slashed, infrastructure projects put thru, high speed internet pushed to rural areas, good jobs and semiconductor manufacturing back to the US.

But it was not in the best interest of the media to actually report on that.

This notion that Democrats ‘don’t do anything’ is FALSE, but very effective anti-democratic propaganda, and it is unfortunate to see it take hold on DU.

I take a bunch of drugs because I'm chronically ill. I did not see any reduction in prescription medication costs under Biden. In fact, my costs went UP.

This is what I'm talking about. Not just getting costs reduced for 10 drugs, not just getting them reduced for Medicare recipients, getting drug prices reduced for EVERYONE.

This is the sort of kitchen table issues that I think sank us in 2024. If things didn't personally feel better for you, maybe you felt like the administration was doing a poor job. I recognize that Biden was out there helping other people, and I voted for Harris. But we need to focus on policies that help EVERYONE because whatever he was doing to "lower drug prices" never made it to my household.

Sorry, The notion that the Harris 2024 didn’t address kitchen table issues is revisionist history at best, and patently false at worst.


https://qz.com/kamala-harris-prescription-drugs-1851624050

Kamala Harris' plan to keep prescription drug prices down includes a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs
Harris also proposed faster Medicare drug-price negotiations, a $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin, and cancelling medical debt

I assume the pharmaceutical companies would be told what they could charge, but not sure that would pass the courts.

If I'm taking a few drugs now that add up to $150 a month, then those drug companies would get their money just fine as the cap wouldn't be met. Let's say in March I get an issue and get prescribed a new drug that costs $100 per month. That would add up to $2800 per year or $800 above the cap. Which drug company has to eat the $800?

Overseas cost of most drugs we take here are INSANELY cheaper.

Why do we have to bear all of the brunt of R&D costs when overseas buyers pay pennies?

Unmask ICE. Close the camps. Pursue the Epstein investigation. Support Ukraine.

Regulate AI like it was plutonium
Outlaw Fox News
Build Netherlands style Dams and locks around our major ports
Defund ICE
Turn Miami into our first Aqua City like Venice
Increase the size of the House - Constitution says 1 representative per 50,000 persons
Outlaw profit on Healthcare like it used to be
Mandate 48 hour turnaround on immigrant work visas
Two years of Service gets you two years of College or Trade School
Desalination plants
Invest in nuclear technology

…of banning speech I don’t like, and thinking that a House of Representatives with 6,600 members isn’t going to work.

Fox/Newsmax/OANN would have to be called something else, not news.

"falsely shouting fire in a theater & causing panic."

...but most people wouldn't.

Last edited Sun Jul 20, 2025, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)

is to lose the fixation on bashing Trump non-stop with things based on nothing more than gossip or partial truths. It's really making us look stupid and destroying our credibility among the other 60% of the voters who we desperately need.
And yes, we need to read the room (public opinion) and focus on those issues.
For example, right now there is a massive campaign to resist immigration enforcement all while the large majority of voters support these actions. We can't just keep basing every position on defiance of all things Trump. When protesters are committing violence against federal agents in the course of their duties, we ALL get labelled with that crap. And no, of course it's not right, but that is how we are being portrayed. Like it or not, we have to be more sensitive to that and accept that there is a middle ground we are going to have to accept. My way or the highway is simply not going to work, ever.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been barnstorming the entire effing country with a positive message for months, and people say "well, the Democrats are silent, have nothing to offer"


BULLSHIT
Maybe SOME high-profile Democrats are kind of silent.

Here's an excerpt from an email I got from Bernie.
THIS IS GREAT STUFF and
It gets wild, enthusiastic response.
Expect even greater response as the wrecking ball hits more and more of the U.S.A.

From Bernie:

People attending rallies in huge numbers are saying
YES to raising the minimum wage,
YES to expanding Social Security,
YES to guaranteeing health care as a human right,
YES to cutting the cost of prescription drugs,
YES to paid family and medical leave,
YES to equal pay for equal work,
YES to more affordable housing,
YES to making childcare and higher education affordable to all,
YES to taking on the existential threat of climate change.

And most importantly they are saying
YES to a government and an economy that works for all of us and not just the billionaire class and the Oligarchs.

A woman’s right to choose didn’t make the list

My thought on this is that these are "dollars and cents" issues.
And it's an email about the Oligarchy tour.

Naturally, right to choose is fundamental, has great economic impact, and more.

Feedback to Bernie.
Have a general question? Email us at info@berniesanders.com or call us at 802-448-2048
https://berniesanders.com/contact/

I've heard right to choose, and many more issues featured at rallies ... Yes, I listened to a few all the way through.

-Prescription drug prices. Not just 10 drugs and not just for people on Medicare. As someone who is chronically ill, it was so demoralizing every time Biden announced one of his "big wins" for Americans and it was only 10 drugs (none of them the very expensive drugs I have to take) or that they were only going after drug prices tied to Medicare. We subsidize the pharmaceutical industry like crazy. Why do Americans have to pay more for prescription medicines than any other Western nation in the world? I want to see our party be the one that lowers the prices for EVERY family, families with cancer, families with chronic illness, families in every income bracket.

-Universal healthcare. Why are we the only western nation that still doesn't have this?

Freely give out work permits... 12 month or even 60 month VISAs giving permission to work in the USA.

Set up some infrastructure where their income has to go into an account that will trigger an alarm if they stop working for an extended period of time.

And no guaranteed path to citizenship. This has always been what annoys the political "middle"... place citizenship as a reward and the price should be equivalent to what other immigrants pay... and that is time.

A legal immigrant here, who goes through the legal process and becomes a US citizen... (takes years BTW) will have to wait up to 15 years to bring a sibling here... and then they wil have to wait 7-10 years for citizenship.

So in my scenario... an immigrant here on legal status will be eligible for citizenship after 20 years in the country with no long lapses in work history or tax payments.

Gains created by inflation for everyone making less than $400k as a couple or $200k for single.

Criminalize crypto
Defund ICE
Progressive tax rates
Free trade
SCOTUS reboot

And maybe a bunch more Troll Pardons that are just designed to make MAGA angry. I dunno, I'm open to examples.

In the example you provided, it makes sense to base unemployment taxes on "use", for lack of a better term, because companies control who they lay off, which means more people unemployed.

In the example I used, a company has no say (nor should they) on how many people are in their employees' households.

A given job pays what it pays, based on the skills required, demand for those skills, etc. I'm not seeing why a company should have to pay the government because a given set of employees has bigger families that qualify them for federal benefits.

To be clear, I have no issue whatsoever with the federal government providing those needed benefits, and if we're talking single-member households who need federal benefits because they can't survive on their pay, then yes, I'm all for companies having to contribute. Where we diverge is on the notion that companies should pay a penalty to the government due to something they have no control over (benefits due to family size).

Unfortunately, the corporate media has such a double standard for Dems that they have to be both perfect and extremely consistent to break through. Any little consistency will be picked apart, and if Dems are not all "singing from the same hymnbook", THAT will be the story. So, that being said, I think we should keep it extremely simple. How about "Whose side are you on?" Lends itself to whatever topic is being discussed whether it's the economy, inflation, immigration, education, tariffs, labor, the environment, etc.

The Democratic Party is for democrats and supports democratic policies.
Sorry for all those who missed the boat. It's about time to stop catering to those who will never be happy. We've lost too much trying to appease the unsatiable.

“…We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. ……” FDR State of the Union Speech 1944
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/second-bill-of-rights-annotated

This was the vision of the Marshall plan which rebuilt Europe! There was no Businessman’s Plot in Europe after WW2!

I propose that the Democratic Party embrace this as a Constitutional Admendment and the basis of our platform going forward. FDR envisioned this as a legislative platform, and the oligarchs of the day not only opposed this politically, they tried to foment rebellion and depose FDR! (The Conspiratorial Business Plot of 1933 https://explorethearchive.com/business-plot) Ever since, the Dems have been nibbling around the edges of these proposals, tryng to enact them through legislation. And then along came RayGun, and the legislative edifice has been slowly undermined ever since. The quote above should provide the basis for the Dem platform going forward. The country is ready to listen. And let them call FDR’s followers Communists!

I can see why this messaging was so effective during the Great Depression.

Constitutional amendment, whatever it takes...stop future dictators before they start.

Labor over capital, workers over owners. Universal healthcare, housing and education. Union membership.

Basic stuff, easy stuff.

I'm sure people tell that to pollsters, but look at our platform last year vs. the GOP (single page bullet points, mostly phrases with bad grammar). Now go back 30 years.

We've gotten control twice in the last 32 years, both times promising to fix things, we do, then we're out in two years. My two cents is that anger for declining fortunes is going to get there.

Medicare for All or single payer system

Only focus on the criminals in illegal immigration

Higher taxes on the wealthy

Exoand SS/Medicare/Medicaid (we may not need
Medicaid when Medicare For All is fully implemented)

Bring back Roe v Wade abortion policy

$15 minimum wage and more than that would be ideal in some areas

Focus on equality for all and bring back DEI

Support Ukraine again and withhold funds from Israel

New climate change initiatives similar to Green New Deal

End death penalty

If no UBI, make some eligible for a recurring annual check

Focus on rolling back Citizens United

More affordable housing and transportation

Anf more..

And none of it mattered because the same unholy alliance between MAGA Republicans and deluded horseshoe leftists screwed us over again.

Corporate rightwing media and propagandized social media deluded just enough people into thinking that that people shouldn't vote for Democrats -- ironic, giving that some of these are the same folks saying we need to give them a reason to vote FOR someone rather than against someone, yet they spend 99% of their always-online time bashing Biden, Kamala, and other Democrats for being too pro-Israel, too corporatist, blah blah fucking blah.

The Biden administration was the most progressive in my lifetime and it didn't matter one fucking bit to a sizeable enough segment of our so-called """allies""" on the left that helped throw the election to Trump and his MAGA Republicans yet again.

buying into and thoughtlessly repeating the false “Democrats do nothing” propaganda that came out of the dishonest sources you cited.

I consider it the single most important issue. We absolutely must reverse the horrible decisions that have come from this extremely toxic court.

It's not something that we can deliver on until we pick up 7 or 8 Senate seats among the 57 or so senators who would currently oppose that. We're the opposition, pin everything on the ruling party. The message should be that Republican judges are on the take, and they've rules that businesses own your lives. The debate should be about why we have such a crappy court. It drove Republican ascendancy for 70 years (1954-2024)

We cannot have equality without having choice and that's MY main issue.

Sometimes, I think the issues of choices almost gets forgotten. I'm here to make sure that it doesn't.

No exceptions.

wage linked to cost of living for each area. Needs to be enough to afford all the necessities - rent, health insurance, auto, food, utilities, etc. No one gets paid less than what it costs to live.

So a couple who dropped out of high school can go to work full time at whatever skill level they have and collectively earn $140,000 per year!

Wowzer!