WILL THE REAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLEASE STAND UP_

Republicans are right: spending is out of control. The Department of Government Efficiency is right to look for waste, fraud, and abuse. But they’re looking in the wrong place.

Healthcare will devour $77 trillion over the next decade - 20% of our entire economy - while delivering worse outcomes than almost every developed nation. These aren’t my numbers - they’re straight from the government’s own projections. CMS.gov admits we’re on track for this catastrophe. That’s not a spending problem you fix with more money. That’s a structural failure requiring structural solutions.

The waste isn’t happening where government checks are written; it’s happening in the healthcare industry cashing them. Medicare and Medicaid spending are out of control because healthcare spending itself is out of control. We’re dumping money into a broken, extractive, profit-driven industry producing nothing but debt and death. Administrative costs alone now account for over 40% of what hospitals spend - not on healing, but on fighting insurance companies over every claim.

The solution is staring us in the face: build a public healthcare system, owned and operated by We the People. Use it to expose exactly how much waste, fraud and abuse the private healthcare cartel has been hiding. Show America what healthcare actually costs when you remove the parasites.

Democrats should be jumping on this opportunity. But here’s the problem: we’re waiting on leaders who will never lead. Hakeem Jeffries won’t articulate ideas like public hospitals and medical corps because he doesn’t believe in them - or his donors won’t let him. The party’s waiting until the midterms to see how things go, fundamentally misunderstanding the urgency of this moment. More than 50% of the counties in America have shifted to Trump over the last three elections, yet Democrats remain convinced Americans want some mythical moderate middle ground when what we actually want is a moderate, reasonable government - which would require politically “radical” acts like actually building things.

Instead of defensively protecting bloated spending, Democrats should say: “You want to cut waste? Let’s cut the 30% of every healthcare dollar that goes to administration, while Japan manages with 1.6%. That alone would save us $21.87 trillion in administrative waste over 10 years. But wait there’s more. Let’s end the real estate investment trusts (REITs) counted as healthcare spending. Let’s stop funding billions in profits earned by denying care.

This isn’t fantasy - we’ve done it before. The Hill-Burton Act built 6,800 healthcare facilities in over 4,000 communities between 1946-1997. The VA built 82 hospitals from World War II to 1960. During COVID-19, the Army Corps of Engineers converted 28 facilities adding almost 16,000 beds in just weeks. These aren’t radical fantasies—they’re proven blueprints waiting to be scaled up.

Here’s what Democrats can’t see with their heads stuck up their asses: This could transform everything. Build a healthcare system more American than apple pie - one that actually works for the people in this country. Then take that same approach - identifying extraction, building alternatives, proving government can deliver - and apply it everywhere Americans are getting screwed. Housing. Education. Banking. Show the country what real leadership looks like by actually solving problems, rather than managing decline.

But Democrats won’t touch it. Instead, they’re trying to out-Republican the Republicans. Slotkin thinks swearing more will win votes. Newsom bulldozes homeless camps. Fetterman wants to be tougher on Palestinians and more supportive of genocide. They’re looking for easy answers instead of doing hard work.

Meanwhile, MAGA voters already hate Big Pharma. They watched pharmaceutical companies destroy their communities with OxyContin. They know these companies only care about profit. Democrats could channel that rage into building something better.

The government already spends enough to cover millions more Americans - if it were done efficiently. But efficiency requires confronting healthcare’s 30% skim. It requires building actual infrastructure instead of subsidizing corporate profits.

This isn’t about spending more or less. It’s about recognizing that some problems can’t be solved by throwing money at them. They can only be solved by doing the work.

Democrats keep wandering the wilderness, looking for magic messages or perfect candidates. But the answer isn’t messaging; it’s doing. Build the clinics. Train the doctors. Prove government can deliver better healthcare by actually delivering it.

That’s how you win back working-class voters - not by posturing as tough guys, but by fighting the system that’s actually screwing them and building one that works.

Republicans want to cut spending? Great. Let’s cut healthcare industry profits and build something real. Show America what efficiency looks like.

But that would require effort - and effort seems to be the one thing Democrats refuse to spend. They won’t do it unless we force their hand.

Will the real Democratic Party please stand up? The one that built Social Security and Medicare? The one that electrified rural America? The one that knew how to fight corporate power—and win?

America’s waiting. It’s time we demanded leaders who’ll finally do the work.

Sources:

Healthcare spending projections: https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/nhe-fact-sheet

Hill-Burton Act: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/02/495775518/a-bygone-era-when-bipartisanship-led-to-health-care-transformation

VA Hospital Construction: https://www.cfm.va.gov/about/history.asp

COVID-19 Army Corps Response: https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2154305/corps-of-engineers-takes-on-28-covid-19-bed-facilities/