Fix the damn roads, make stuff cost less.
Every now and then Frank Bruni writes simply to make me laugh. You’ve been too serious, old chum, he thinks to himself. What’s all this, making people cry stuff. The video at the end of that Mt. Vernon piece? Totally deadly and completely unnecessary. What kind of person does that? What you need is to amuse and be amused. Very well, challenge accepted.
C’est moi Pierre. Remember me? I was gone for a bit and now I am back. That is the nature of things, I go and then I return, no offense. You wish me to investigate Senate candidate Roy Cooper. yes? Give you my opinion? Since I cannot read minds, I can only go by the website. The first official site I ran into only had one page… please donate. The other site has one page dedicated to his platform. Essentially his platform is… they’ve fucked it, we’ll unfuck it. That’s it. Bad man took away your water? I’ll bring it back for you. With that here is the full platform. You tell me if that reading is inaccurate.
https://roycooper.com/make-stuff-cost-less/
Lowering the Cost of Food and Groceries:
The cost of food and groceries is skyrocketing in North Carolina and across the country. While farmers are getting crushed by tariffs and families are seeing prices rise at grocery stores and restaurants, big corporations and Washington DC insiders are doing all they can to squeeze every penny out of their customers. Roy Cooper is running for U.S. Senate to make stuff cost less, starting with the price of food and groceries.
Support Our Farmers and Stop Chaotic Tariffs: Tariffs drive up costs on farmers who have to pass the costs along to restaurants, groceries stores and hardworking North Carolinians.
Block Anti-Competitive Mergers: Strengthen antitrust enforcement in grocery retail and food processing to block corporate mergers that reduce competition and raise prices.
Ban algorithms on grocery pricing to make it illegal for companies to raise the price of groceries based on a specific customer.
Make it illegal for food producers to reduce competition to increase prices using digital tools to collude: Stop companies from using algorithms to coordinate prices and supply information to drive up the cost.
Making Health Care Affordable:
Health care costs are spiraling out of control for North Carolina families. Insurance companies are blindsiding working people with surprise bills and denied claims and forcing them to pay more for plans that cover less. Meanwhile, attacks on health care coming out of Washington are spiking premium costs and threatening to take health care away from working families.
As Governor, Roy Cooper was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to make real progress on health care, expanding Medicaid and helping hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians get access to health insurance. He will take that same common sense bipartisanship to Washington to make health care cost less the way he’s done his entire career.
Let doctors decide about health care, not insurance bureaucrats. End insurance company runarounds by allowing doctors to make coverage decisions, and reform insurance company reviews that result in denial of coverage for what a doctor says you need.
Reverse cuts that leave people without health insurance or unable to afford the coverage they have. North Carolina saw the largest drop of any state in Affordable Care Act enrollment. Reinstate the ACA tax credits and reverse Medicaid cuts. This will help lower costs for everyone’s premiums, including people who get their health insurance through an employer.
Require Medicare to broaden negotiations with drug makers to make more prescription medicines affordable.
Put patient care first at hospitals. Strengthen oversight of harmful hospital mergers and takeovers that put profits over patients.
Crack down on pharmacy benefit managers and their middlemen who put small town pharmacists out of business and pocket savings instead of passing them along to patients.
Curb surprise billing. Cap out-of-network charges for non-emergency care so that staying out-of-network isn’t a business strategy for health care companies, and designate emergency ground ambulance services as an essential health benefit—98% of emergency transport is unprotected.
Cap annual prescription drug out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
Prevent medical debt by mandating hospitals auto enroll in charity care, lowering drug and medical costs for all.
Increase enforcement on upfront pricing to make health care costs transparent. Consumers should be able to shop around for the cost of common procedures and tests.
Lowering Energy + Utility Costs:
North Carolina families are being squeezed by energy costs that climb higher and higher each year. Electricity bills in North Carolina have risen 22 percent since 2020 with further increases on the horizon. Roy Cooper will work to deliver common-sense solutions that cut costs and protect families from being ripped off.
Make sure data centers pay the full cost of all the power they use and prevent costs from being passed on to consumers.
Reduce utility costs for consumers by working to encourage large tech companies to build their own energy sources.
Ban utility companies from disconnecting power during dangerous heat and cold to keep families safe during periods of extreme weather.
Modernize our energy grid to lower energy costs for consumers. Too much of our grid is old and inefficient. By modernizing parts of it we can increase reliability, create good-paying jobs and lower costs for families.
Making Child Care Affordable:
Lower the cost of child care for parents who work and parents who stay at home.
Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to support working families and put money back in people’s pockets.
Grow and support the child care workforce. Increase the quality and supply of childcare by investing in apprenticeships for child care workers and paying better wages.
Cut unnecessary red tape that keeps child care facilities expensive – like requiring they provide packaged food instead of preparing fresh fruit – while prioritizing child safety.
Encourage employers to help employees with child care by providing employer tax credits for on-site child care or employee child care subsidies.
Lowering Housing Costs
Stop the bad actors driving up the price of housing for families across the state and make housing cost less.
Support Building More Homes. Provide incentives for multi-family and modular construction to build more housing quickly and lower costs for families.
Stop Big Corporations, Investment Funds and Foreign Companies from Buying Single-Family Homes. Restrict big corporate buyers from owning large portfolios of single-family homes that drive up prices for families trying to buy a home.
Ban Algorithm-Driven Rent Setting. Companies like RealPage and Yardi collect real-time pricing data from landlords and use algorithms to recommend rent increases, with reports showing the practice increases rents between 5% and 12%. Stop companies from using revenue-maximization software that allows landlords to raise the rent on tenants in coordination.
End Tariffs Driving Up Prices for Building Materials. End the chaotic trade wars that have driven up the costs of construction materials like lumber, aluminum and steel, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of building a home.
Eliminate Unnecessary Rules That Drive Up Housing Costs. Spur housing construction by streamlining rules, speeding reviews and converting commercial buildings to housing.
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I don’t wish to tell you “how” to think. That you must do for yourself. I’ve offered my opinion. It’s your job to see if what I offered to you as “analysis” is accurate or not.
The slogan is simple: Make Stuff Cost Less.
Grethen’s was similar: Fix The Damn Roads.
These are 4 word slogans. They are not plans. They are not goals. They are not even full visions.
Neither the Left nor the Right, neither the dramatic nor the boring can change things within the System. The simple reason is these people are of the System - from childhood as you saw in that video in the Washington post. As usual the dearth of genuine candidates with an actual Platform is a reflection of either: their confession (we cannot change the System) or their laziness (we are not here to change the System - we simply don’t care).
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I could make up slogans too:
Stop poisoning the food supply.
Stop poisoning the water supply.
Bring manufacturing back to America.
Eliminate homelessness and make housing affordable for everyone.
Fix the damn roads, and plan for flying cars.
Make Stuff Cost Less for the Average Person and more for the 1%.
You see? It’s bullshit. These aren’t plans - they are just wish lists. These people aren’t serious. These people are the only choices we’re being offered by the System. They can’t change anything.
Thanks for the laugh. Things were getting too serious. Doom scroll can only get you so far. We must have a positive spirit.
PLEASE DON’T LOOK AT THEIR LIGHT BULB»»»
