“Medicare for All” was a big flash-point between moderate Amy Klobuchar and liberal Democratic rivals in last night’s fourth presidential debate. Elizabeth Warren supports “Medicare for All” and was asked, will taxes go up? “Costs are gonna go up for the wealthy, they’re gonna go up for big corporations. They will not go up for middle-class families,” Warren said. But Bernie Sanders acknowledged taxes would go up for more than just the wealthy — however he says, “For virtually everybody, the tax increase they pay will be substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out-of-pocket.” Klobuchar interjected, “At least Bernie’s being honest here and saying how he’s gonna pay for this and that taxes are gonna go up. And I’m sorry, Elizabeth, but you have not said that, and I think we owe it to the American people to tell them where we’re gonna send the invoice.”
Warren fired back “Medicare for All” is necessary because “two out of every three families that ended up in bankruptcy after a serious medical problem had health insurance.” Klobuchar responded America needs a plan that Congress can get done — not a pipedream. “Bring down the cost of the premium and expand the number of people covered, and take on the pharmaceutical companies,” she said to applause. “That is what we should be doing, instead of kicking 149 million people off their insurance in four years.”
But there was no disagreement between liberal and moderate Democrats in last night’s presidential debate that the impeachment inquiry should move forward. Bernie Sanders said, “In my judgment, Trump is the most corrupt president in the history of this country,” a sentiment echoed by Joe Biden who said, “This president… is the most corrupt president in modern history, and I think all of our history.” Klobuchar says lawmakers have a constitutional duty to pursue impeachment of President Trump, “I’m still waiting to find out from him how making that call to the head of Ukraine and trying to get him involved in interfering in our election makes America great again,” she says.
President Trump says the impeachment inquiry is an “illegitimate process” and is blocking officials from testifying. Some Democrats warn a vote on continuing the inquiry would play into Republicans’ hands.