In this interview (above) with Rachel Maddow about healthcare over a decade ago, Alan Grayson told her that Democrats have been fooled "by this fantasy of bipartisanship. Bipartisanship is a concept that's become a weapon of mass distraction to keep us from actually doing what we need to do-- to give people in this country universal healthcare... I don't remember hearing lot about bipartisanship when we were talking about tax breaks for the rich."
Today, Grayson is running for the Democratic nomination for the Florida Senate seat held by Marco Rubio that Chuck Schumer is absolutely determined to give pointless New Dem Val Demings despite the fact that she has exactly, precisely ZERO chance of beating Rubio. One of the half dozen most unaccomplished members of Congress, who's stands for nothing beyond her own failed upward career, Demings is a Schumeristic repeat performance of his 2018 comic tragedy Electing Kyrsten Sinema, except the worst part of the Sinema play was that she won, and the worst part of the Demings play is that she won't.
Just compare Demings DSCC-directed campaign site issues page to Grayson's. His site was put together to let people know what they are voting for if they back him. Hers, like all DSCC sites, is to trick people into supporting her. Her healthcare paragraph is typical Republican bullshit: ACCESS, which means nothing to anyone without lots of money. It is a word that serves as a signal to conservatives that nothing will change: "Chief Demings believes that every American deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care." She certainly doesn't support Medicare-for-All.
Healthcare is the first issue on Grayson's policies page:
Healthcare is a human right. Every human being, rich or poor, deserves the care needed to stay healthy and alive. That’s what “the right to life” really means. Every civilized society takes care of its own. And COVID has reminded us that even when it’s other people who are sick, it’s a potential danger to everyone. That’s why everyone in America must have healthcare.
Medicare For All. We spend $11,000 per person on healthcare; no one else spends more than $7700. And yet we are 40th in the world in life expectancy. How can we spend so much on health, and get so little health in return? The answer is that health insurance companies charges as much as they can, give as little care as they can, and they call the difference “profit.” There is a conflict of interest between you and your health insurance company. No one asks to be sick, and no one else should make a profit from it. We need Medicare for all.
In all, Demings rushes through 7 issues, that give you very little idea about what she would do as a senator. Grayson's issues page takes on 15 issues, with multiple subordinate issues. For example, Demings' has an insipid paragraph on environment that includes 2 meaningless non-committal sentences on Climate:
Here in Florida, our environment is our greatest treasure and our most important economic engine. Florida’s natural beauty, beautiful beaches, and clean air and water fuel our tourism-based economy. Chief Val Demings takes threats to our environment seriously, because they are threats to Floridians’ jobs and way of life. That’s why she opposes offshore drilling off Florida’s coasts, and why she has delivered funding to combat the toxic algae that impacts our shores and waterways. The Chief voted to bring more than $1 billion in funding to protect the Florida Everglades. And in the U.S. Senate, she will address the danger of massive hurricanes and extreme flooding that are becoming more regular in Florida communities. Chief Demings knows the threat of climate change is real, and that’s why she supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill which will fund billions of dollars of climate change-resistant infrastructure in Florida and create thousands of new jobs.
Grayson is... considerably more aggressive and more informative in his approach:
Climate Catastrophes / The Environment
Tax polluters, not people. It was Ronald Reagan who said, “if you want more of something, subsidize it; if you want less of something, tax it.” We want less pollution; it’s overheating the planet. (Today, in mid-December, it’s 85 degrees here in Orlando.) So we should tax it. Sweden’s tax on carbon pollution has cut transportation pollution there by 11%, and it raises $2.3 billion a year. In the United States, which produces roughly 120 times as much carbon pollution as Sweden, that would be around $275 billion-- enough revenue to cut taxes on 75% of Americans to zero. End pollution-- Save the Planet. In 1958, the year that I was born, the CO² concentration in the atmosphere was 314 ppm. Today, it’s 416 ppm, a 1/3 increase. And, not surprisingly, back then, there were 30 days a year when the temperature in Indialantic, FL was 90° or more. Now, it’s 70 days each year. Last year, it was 100° in Siberia. Planet Earth is changing right in front of our eyes, and we have to work together to cut CO² and methane pollution to save it. The whole world, not just the U.S., should tax carbon and methane pollution until the problem is under control, and the climate catastrophes stop.
It would be difficult to imagine that someone could look at Demings' skimpy, uninformative, middle-of-the-road web site and at Grayson's and somehow conclude that she would be even 10% as good a senator as he would be. The DSCC tells their candidates not to give anything away that could be used by the other side to pin them down on anything controversial. Her approach to the most important thing voters want to hear about, "Jobs and the Economy" is just more about herself and nothing about solving the problems Floiridians are facing: "Raised in a two-bedroom, A-frame home in Jacksonville, the youngest of seven children, Val Demings grew up knowing the value of a job and a dollar. Her parents, Elouise, a maid, and James, a janitor, did all they could to support their children and instill in them the meaning of hard work. As a teenager, Val worked flipping burgers to help support her family. Now, as a Member of Congress, Val Demings works to ensure anyone willing to work hard can find a job that does more than just pay the bills-- a job that can help build a better life for your children. That’s why she worked with Republicans and Democrats to deliver relief funding for Florida’s small businesses during the pandemic, and why she championed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create thousands of new, good-paying 21st century jobs in Florida."
Grayson has pages and pages on "the economy" but there are a few paragraphs that inform voters precisely where he stands on jobs:
Paid sick leave and family leave for everyone who works. Do we really want someone to have to come to work sick, under penalty of being fired? COVID has taught us that sick leave is a ‘benefit’ for everyone’s benefit. And the same is true if a family member is sick. Every other developed country in the world provides for paid sick leave by law. Sick leave and family leave not only reflect human decency, but they improve public health, too. Paid vacations for every employee. There are 20 million workers in America who never get a day off. They will work every weekday until they retire or they die. That ain’t right. And health statistics show that it’s not healthy, either. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and, sooner or later, a dead boy, too. My “Paid Vacation Act” extends that level of respect to the people who do all the work, for everyone. A $15 national minimum wage. When I was in Congress, I introduced the “Catching Up to 1968 Act,” which raises the minimum wage to $15 because, adjusted for inflation, that’s what the minimum wage was back in 1968. Under the current minimum wage, full-time workers make $1200 per month, and they owe $100 in taxes on that. How can anyone survive on $1100 per month? That’s less than the average Social Security check. Everyone deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and that means $15 an hour, at least. Equal pay for equal work. It’s 2021, and women still make only 84 cents for every dollar that men make. Hispanic women make 53 cents for every dollar that white men make. Pay discrimination has been illegal since 1963, but last year, the Government filed five cases under the Equal Pay Act-- in the entire country--and recovered less than $100,000 for underpaid women. We have to enforce the law.
Among his other specific economic proposals:
Increase Social Security. Seniors have gotten nothing but weak “cost of living” adjustments for more than 40 years now. My ‘Seniors Deserve a Raise Act’ would change that. Also, people pay taxes on the money that they pay into the Social Security Trust Fund, and on the money that they take out. That ain’t right. Seniors shouldn’t have to pay taxes on the same money twice.
Medicare for Eyes, Ears and Teeth. When the Medicare Act was passed, in 1965, one line prohibited dental benefits, and another line prohibited vision and hearing benefits. No one knows why. Today, 84% of the public favors Medicare coverage for eyes, ears and teeth, and only 8% are opposed. My “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act,” a one-page bill, strikes those two lines from the Medicare Act, and sets things right.
Triple KidCash-- the child tax credit. We pay for children’s education. We pay for children’s healthcare. (It was my third vote in Congress-- it meant a lot to me.) We pay for one meal a day for children, through the school lunch program. Why should we stop there? If parents are willing to devote their time and their love to raising children, shouldn’t they have some more help from all of us? That’s why I support tripling the current Child Tax Credit-- which I call KidCash-- to $6000 a year. (Having raised five children, I can tell you that it costs a lot more than that.)
This 2022 Blue America Senate thermometer will allow you to contribute to Grayson and the other Senate candidates worth investing in. Val Demings isn't among them, nor are any other Sinema-like candidates that Chuck Schumer dug up-- primarily losers-in-waiting who will hand the Senate back to the Republican Party and endanger the very core of American democracy. Please consider clicking here or on the thermometer and contributing what you can to Alan Grayson's campaign. Let's help bring courage back.
This Facebook ad doesn't mention Demings. It's about Grayson and Rubio. It is moves you to contribute to a campaign that has an actual chance to win and that could help make America a better place for working people, please use that thermometer.