Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday called for Democrats to pass "Medicare for All" once they take control of the Senate in January - a request delivered with the quiet confidence of a man who has been saying this since roughly the invention of the filibuster.

"Healthcare must be considered as a human right, not a privilege. That means passing Medicare for All legislation now supported by 66 percent of the American people," Sanders said in a video. Sixty-six percent, for the record, is a number that politicians typically describe as "a mandate" when it's on their side and "a deeply divided public" when it isn't.

Sanders will likely be the next chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, giving him a major platform to push a Medicare for All agenda in the next Congress - or, at minimum, a very good seat from which to ask pointed questions.

Progressives are treating Tuesday's Democratic landslide as evidence their policies can win anywhere, buoyed by victories like that of Abdul El-Sayed (D) in Michigan. House and Senate progressives are now expected to make a significant push for single-payer healthcare, which is the political equivalent of winning a hand of poker and immediately announcing you'd like to play for higher stakes.

Sanders also laid out a more incremental path: Democrats should immediately pass a bill expanding Medicare coverage while keeping people's private insurance intact. "As an immediate first step, Democrats must lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 55, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and guarantee universal health care coverage for every child from birth through age 19," he said. A modest starter kit, by Washington standards.

Major change remains unlikely in the next two years with President Trump still in office, so Sanders pushed for doing it through reconciliation - the parliamentary procedure that lets the Senate bypass the filibuster and pass budget bills with only 51 votes. Republicans used that same tool to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, a fact Sanders would very much like to reverse. He also called for restoring the Affordable Care Act's enhanced premium subsidies.

In short: a bold agenda, a 51-vote procedural workaround, and a president with a veto pen. What could possibly go wrong?