ATLANTA, Nov 21, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The top Democrats in the 2020
presidential nomination race clashed over health care and other priorities in
Wednesday’s debate, laying bare their divide between moderate and liberal
policy platforms.
After an opening phase dominated by talk of impeachment of Donald Trump,
participants in the fifth Democratic debate locked horns over health care, in
particular the costly universal coverage program supported by liberal
senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
“The fact is that right now the vast majority of Democrats do not support
Medicare for All,” frontrunner and former vice president Joe Biden said.
“It couldn’t pass the United States Senate right now with Democrats. It
couldn’t pass the House.”
Biden proposes building on the existing Obamacare and adding an public
option for health care, and “not make people choose.”
Pete Buttigieg, currently the ascendant candidate in the race and who is
running in the same moderate lane as Biden, said Democrats can seize a
majority on issues like immigration and guns, “if we can galvanize, not
polarize that majority.”
On health care he too attacked the liberals, saying government should not
be “commanding people” to accept Medicare for All.
“Whether we wait three years as Senator Warren has proposed or whether you
do it right out of the gate is not the right approach to unify the American
people around a very, very big transformation that we now have an opportunity
to deliver,” said Buttigieg, who is the mayor of the small town of South
Bend, Indiana.
The health debate is at the center of the political divide between the
candidates.
Warren has made headway by pledging to end a system that is working
“better for… the rich and well-connected, and worse and worse for everyone
else.”
“I’m tired of freeloading billionaires,” she said.
Biden leads in national polling, followed by Warren and Sanders.
But the three septuagenarian political veterans are seeking to blunt the
surge of 37-year-old Buttigieg, a military veteran and the first gay
candidate with a viable shot at the White House, as anxiety builds about who
will challenge Trump.
Buttigieg is cracking into the top tier with a steady rise in the past
month, particularly in early-voting states like Iowa where he has seized the
momentum.
His unruffled campaign demeanor and pragmatic reform proposals have gained
traction in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that vote first in the
nomination race.
But even as the 10 qualifying candidates rumbled in their nationally
televised showdown in Atlanta, dominating the political discourse is the
high-stakes impeachment hearings into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Democrats accuse Trump of conditioning military aid and a White House
meeting on Kiev’s announcing investigations of Biden and his son Hunter, who
worked with a Ukrainian energy company while his father was vice president.
Testifying just hours before the debate, Gordon Sondland, ambassador to
the European Union, said he was ordered by Trump to seek a deal in which
Ukraine would probe Biden in exchange for a White House meeting.
But some candidates warned that obsessing over the president’s alleged
corruption and wrongdoing could sabotage Democrats’ efforts.
“We cannot simply be consumed by Donald Trump,” Sanders said. “Because if
we are, you know what? We’re going to lose the election.”
– Democratic anxiety –
With national attention directed at Capitol Hill, the debate run-up has
been low-key.
Ten qualified for Wednesday’s debate: Biden, Warren, Sanders and
Buttigieg; senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar;
entrepreneur Andrew Yang and investor-turned-activist Tom Steyer; and
congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
The field may soon expand to include billionaire businessman and former New
York mayor Michael Bloomberg who has recently filed ballot paperwork in two
states.
Bloomberg’s entry could signal lack of confidence in Biden’s candidacy —
and a broader sense of anxiety among Democrats about whether their party will
nominate the right candidate to defeat Trump.
Biden’s floundering campaign could benefit Buttigieg, who occupies the
same centrist lane.
Nationally, Buttigieg is in fourth position, according to a
RealClearPolitics polling average.
But a recent Des Moines Register poll of Iowa voters showed him storming
into the lead with 25 percent support, followed by Warren at 16 percent and
Biden and Sanders at 15 percent.