Another social liberal / fiscal conservative bites the dust
Another social liberal / fiscal conservative bites the dust CHRIST CHAVEZ / GETTY IMAGES

Beto O'Rourke won't run for President or Senate: The former Texas Congressman stole some of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's M4A news cycle thunder by announcing the end of his 2020 presidential bid. "My service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee," he said in a Medium post. Glad he's out of the big race—it's about time—but bummed he's not driving around Texas threatening to take everybody's guns. Anti-guns Beto is a good Beto.

ITMFA update: In case anyone needed more evidence of a cover-up, today Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine expert who actually heard the call between Trump and Zelensky, said "a top White House lawyer" on the National Security Council told him to keep quiet about what he had heard, according to the Washington Post.

Warren's got a Medicare for All plan: For months debate moderators and political rivals have been trying to force Sen. Elizabeth Warren to say that any honest version of Medicare for All requires raising taxes on the middle class. But on Friday she released a detailed plan showing that another world is possible. In this world, vampiric health insurance companies will dissolve, big businesses and rich people will pay more taxes, every American will have health insurance, and it'll all cost a bit less than the country is already paying in terms of health care costs, i.e approximately $52 trillion.

About five minutes after she released the plan, maybe 50 to 60,000 takes sprouted. Let's walk through a couple.

From a health care wonk who did a lot of intensive blogging on the subject: Over at Vox, Ezra Klein calls a few pieces of Warren's estimates "optimistic," particularly her assumed savings on bundled payments and the yearly growth rate of health spending. In her pay-fors, Klein argues that companies who offer really good health care will be unhappy because they'll have to pay the same amount, initially, as companies who provided crappier insurance. Since companies with fewer than 50 employees don't have to offer health insurance under the ACA, those who have chosen to do so will be required to pay in, which will piss them off. He calls the slew of tax hikes on the wealthy "ambitious," and notes the considerable challenge presented by her requirement that Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform. He also flags an inevitable supply problem: we'll need more doctors to care for all the new patients

From Joe Biden's campaign staffer: It's "unrealistic."

From Ryan Lizza: The people of Iowa and New Hampshire are "worried" about this unrealisticness.

From the left: "It's unworkable." Over at the People's Policy Project, Matt Bruening argues Warren's plan will incentivize companies "to spin off workers into independent contractor status or spin them off into firms with less than 50 employees" to avoid paying into the system. Moreover, Warren essentially calls for a head tax on employers to determine how much they'd contribute under the new plan, which he thinks will charge middle and low income workers more than an employer-side payroll tax would. But that assumes the corporation will take the head tax money out of the employee’s paycheck.

From me: I don't think it matters too much if Medicare for All ends up costing more than Warren says it would. We put wars on a credit card, and we can put part of health care for everyone on a credit card, too. Obviously Warren will face all kinds of resistance from all kinds of corporations and special interests, but that's the fight she wants. However, in Seattle, we have firsthand experience about how corporations respond to head taxes. I'm not sure if "universal healthcare without middle class tax hikes" beats "it's a tax on jobs" on a national level, but it's way too early to know if that will be one of the major lines of attack.

Warren, Sanders, Buttigeig, Biden top new Iowa poll: In that order.

California is still very much on fire: The new one is called Maria. "A shift in the wind late in the morning began driving the fire, which was fully uncontained, toward Santa Paula, a city of about 30,000 people," according to the New York Times.

Look at this burger: Some guy bought a burger and fries the last day before the last McDonalds closed in Iceland and is live-streaming the meal today to show people that the food doesn't decompose.

A U.S. blue cheese won best cheese: "Rogue River Blue has taken the top prize at the 2019 World Cheese Awards, marking the first time a US cheese has ever been named World Champion Cheese," according to CNN. USA! USA! USA!

The Seattle Times got ahold of a poll on Eyman's very bad initiative: In July, a majority of Washington residents supported the initiative, which would devastate transportation projects statewide. That support has fallen since the campaign against it picked up:

A 6th-grader led a protest of corporate spending in local elections: Today at noon, a Seattle Public Schools student named Ona rallied at City Hall to protest Amazon's attempt to buy the city council. In a Medium post, local Democrats and DSA members who helped organize the rally say they're trying to create "a progressive Voltron" to fight back against the "hostile corporate takeover."

The election is Tuesday: If you haven't voted yet, please do that this weekend.