Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., listens to a question during the question and answer part of her campaign event Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/ Cheryl Senter)
The radicalism that has taken over the Democratic Party apparently hasn’t infected it enough to make Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan seem like a good one, and Democrats aren’t hiding their rejection of it.
According to The Hill, Democrat senators made it clear that in an America where Warren is president, she wouldn’t get to fulfill her private insurance killing promise:
But even if Warren wins the presidency and Democrats take back the Senate next year, her proposal would still face long odds of actually being enacted given objections among many senators of her own party.
Some Democratic senators on Tuesday said flatly that they would not vote for Warren’s plan if she were president in 2021.
“No, I wouldn’t; I’ve said consistently that I am not for Medicare for All,” said Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who faces a tough reelection race next year. A victory by Jones would greatly help Democrats reach a Senate majority.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said “not as I understand it” when asked if he would vote for Warren’s plan.
“I’m not about to take away private insurance from the union members who have worked so hard to negotiate for it,” Menendez added.
And this rejection doesn’t stop at the moderates, either. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) made it clear that he wouldn’t vote for Warren’s plan either, preferring instead to build on Obamacare:
“I don’t know that we’ll have a chance to do that; I think we’ll take up our own proposals,” he said. “I’m for universal coverage, I’m for building on the Affordable Care Act. My preference is to move forward on a public option.”
If Democrats controlled the Senate, he added, “I think we would look to build on the Affordable Care Act,” rather than pass Medicare for All.
It would appear that a Medicare for All style of legislation isn’t popular among Democrats across the board. Fellow 2020 candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also has a bill similar to Warren’s, and out of 47 members of the Senate Democratic Conference, only 14 co-sponsor it if you include Sanders.
The optional plan seems to have more weight than a “Medicare for All” plan in the polls as well, according to The Hill:
Some Democrats fear that Medicare for All is a liability in the general election. An optional government-run plan polled better than full-scale Medicare for All in a September Kaiser Family Foundation survey, which found 69 percent support for an optional plan and 52 percent support for the full-scale government plan.
While a “Medicare for All” plan does have more support in the House, it’s still split down the middle. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on record saying she’s no fan of the idea.
This is one of Warren’s largest set-pieces on her presidential platform. That it’s being openly rejected by Democrats is likely going to trip up a lot of the momentum that she’s garnered over the past few months. Between that and large Democratic donors threatening to pull out and give money to President Donald Trump if she wins the primary nomination, Warren’s rising numbers may start to dramatically slow.
(READ: Big Democrat Donors Threaten To Switch To Trump If Elizabeth Warren Wins The 2020 Nomination)
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