 So, before the Democratic Party primary, support for Medicare for All was starting to really rise. There were some polls that showed that it surpassed 70%. And it got to a point where we actually started to see a bipartisan consensus emerge. Because a Reuters-Ipsos poll found that a slim majority of Republicans supported Medicare for All. Now, fast forward to the 2019 Democratic Party primary, and it has been attacked relentlessly by not just Republicans, but corporate Democrats who are going out of their way to spread lies about Medicare for All at the behest of the industry. And the reason why I say at the behest of the industry is because you see people like Pete Buttigieg, for example, who has kind of become the chief opponent to Medicare for All. He previously supported it. Like if you go back to February of this year, you can see him advocating and making the case for Medicare for All. But then he started to take money from the health insurance industry. And then lo and behold, now he's changing his tune. And now he's arguing against it, as is Joe Biden, as is Amy Klobuchar. But the problem with their arguments against Medicare for All is that they're not making good faith arguments against Medicare for All. They are lying about Medicare for All. And this is having a substantial impact on public support for Medicare for All. So to give you an example, this is basically what we're dealing with when it comes to attacks on Medicare for All. Candidate Pete Buttigieg has unveiled his plan to remake the U.S. health care system. Buttigieg wants to offer every American coverage under the federal Medicare program, but doesn't want to force anyone to give up their private health insurance plans. Everyone is eligible. Even if you currently get your insurance through your employer at work, you'd still be able to buy into this public option if you wanted. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren believe that we have to force ourselves into Medicare for All, where private insurance is abolished. There are 160 million Americans who get their insurance from their employer. So union workers are a little skeptical because they see that as a loss of a benefit that they fought hard to obtain in the workplace. He's trying to focus on choice, not infringing on people's freedom to make that decision voluntarily. You now have an increasing number of Democratic presidential candidates who are signing up for Medicare if you want it. Mayor Pete said Medicare for All who wanted it. That's a much better formulation. Working towards a universal health care system, but it doesn't wipe out private insurance. So that is now one of three ads from just one presidential contender on the left supposedly in the Democratic Party primary who's lying about Medicare for All. He literally quoted someone who says Medicare for All quote, infringes on people's freedom. That is a bold-faced lie. Because what would Medicare for All actually accomplish? Well, it would give people more freedom because you can see any doctor you want to, networks would be gone. And guess what? It's free at the point of service. So if you don't have any money to your name, you can still go see a doctor. No copays, no deductibles, no monthly premiums, free at the point of service. So by saying it infringes on freedom, that is a lie that has manifested from within the industry that this shill is now repeating. So these are the types of disingenuous attacks that we see on Medicare for All that we've been dealing with. And to be fair, it's not just Pete. It's also Biden. It's also Klobuchar. It's John Delaney. But Mayor Pete has essentially been the face of the anti-Medicare for All movement from within the Democratic Party. Now the reason why I'm talking about these attacks on Medicare for All is because they're actually having an effect. They're working. They're actually successfully driving down support for Medicare for All. And they're doing it quickly. Now simultaneously, as they lie about Medicare for All and drive down support for Medicare for All, support for a public option is actually increasing. So they're winning. So if you look at this poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, support for Medicare for All was at an all-time high of 59% in March of 2018 and hovered around 56%, reaching a high of 57%. But as the primary advanced and voters, you know, saw Democrats fearmonger and lie about Medicare for All pretty brazenly, well, they successfully managed to drive down support for Medicare for All because it has since dropped to 51%. An opposition to Medicare for All rose to 47%. Now when you juxtapose that poll with this one, support for a public option has sharply increased since around the time the Democratic debates started to take place from 65% to 73%. That's an eight-point jump. So it goes to show you that these industry talking points, they work, they're effective. And you know, when Republicans attack Medicare for All, that's one thing, but to hear Democrats attack it, that actually legitimizes the right-wing talking points because people trust Democrats more with health care than they do Republicans. So to hear them say something like Medicare for All infringes on your freedom, that actually resonates with people, unfortunately. Now I know what you're thinking. This is just the overall voting base, Democratic Party primary voters, they still support Medicare for All, right? Well, yes, they do overwhelmingly so, thankfully, but even though 71% of Democrats overall still support Medicare for All, that's actually down 10 points overall since January of this year. So the takeaway is that all of the lies that are being told about Medicare for All, all of the fear mongering, it's working, not just among the general electorate, but among Democratic Party primary voters. They are successfully driving down support for Medicare for All and driving up support for a public option. And let me just say this, a public option is an impediment to Medicare for All. I'm not going to say it's a zero-sum game that you can't have one without the other, but a public option is a catch-22, and it puts up a barrier to getting Medicare for All won because if we get that, then we're not going to be talking about health care reform again for what, another decade, because they're going to say, we already did a public option, isn't that good enough? And they're going to move on to other issues that they view are more pressing. And on top of that, hypothetically speaking, let's say that we get a public option. So you're still not decommodifying health care because the issue with health care in America is that there's this for-profit motive, but if you keep the profit motive in place and you just add a public option, well, you're still disproportionately having a health care system that's based on the market, which means that if you can't afford a public option, you get denied health care. You still die if you get sick and you don't have money. And on top of that, these health insurance companies, what they're going to do is market cheaper plans to younger people, to healthy people, and then everyone who's sick will be pushed off onto the public plan, and then it will be overburdened and underfunded as a result. And then once it collapses, what's going to happen? Then Republicans and corporate Democrats are going to look at us and point and say, aha, I told you so. I told you that government-run health care doesn't work and you didn't believe me, but now look. And then the cause, the fight for Medicare for All will be that much more difficult when they point to that failure for the public option. So you've got to understand, now is the time to sound the alarm. These lies have to be called out and they have to be called out ferociously. We have to get loud. Any time we see Pete Buttigieg on Twitter lie about Medicare for All, we need to ratio that tweet. Any time we see an ad like this ran by someone like Joe Biden, we need to dislike it and we need to share the word with people, because this absolutely is so frustrating to see. Like for the last couple of years, we've been doing everything in our power to raise awareness about Medicare for All, elevate the salience of health care. We've been making calls to all of our elected officials, but now because a couple of sellouts want to get elected because they're taking money from the industry, well, they're driving down what you worked hard to accomplish. Don't let this stand. Don't let Pete Buttigieg or Joe Biden or Amy Klobuchar or any other shill have their way. We worked really, really hard to build up public support for Medicare for All and educate people about what's at stake. And now that could be squandered based on an election where you have so many bad faith actors trying to save the private industry and keep health care a commodity when it shouldn't be a commodity. Video games are a commodity. Clothing is a commodity. Health care, that's a human right. So don't let them lie. Call them out and call out to anyone who uses these same talking points. Now is the time we have to educate people because this cannot stand and this is incredibly worrying to me.