Chuck Ross on November 6, 2019
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poured cold water Wednesday on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare for All plan and said she doubts the $52 trillion proposal could ever be enacted.
“I don’t believe we should be in the midst of a big disruption while we are trying to get to 100% coverage and deal with costs,” Clinton said at an event The New York Times hosted.
“The smarter approach is to build on what we have; a public option is something I’ve been in favor of for a very long time,” said Clinton.
Clinton said she would support a debate on any universal health care plan, but that it was not politically feasible.
“You just don’t think that that plan would ever get enacted?” Aaron Ross Sorkin, the event moderator, asked.
“No, I don’t. I don’t. But the goal is the right goal,” said Clinton, who polled neck-and-neck with former Vice President Joe Biden in a hypothetical October poll of the Democratic field.
Clinton did not address the main criticism leveled at Warren’s plan, which she unveiled on Nov. 1.
The Massachusetts Democrat pledged that she will not raise taxes on the middle class and will instead fund her 10-year proposal through taxes on billionaires and mega-millionaires.
“Not one penny in middle-class tax increases,” Warren promised.
Critics of the plan have argued that Warren could not raise $52 trillion without raised taxes substantially on the middle class.
