Bennet slams Warren's Medicare for All plan: 'This isn't going to happen'

[brooklynite]

The Hill

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) slammed Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) "Medicare for All" proposal on Friday, saying the plan is not believable.

“Voters are sick and tired of politicians promising them things that they know they can’t deliver," Bennet said in a statement. "Warren's new numbers are simply not believable and have been contradicted by experts. Regardless of whether it's $21 trillion or $31 trillion, this isn't going to happen, and the American people need health care."

Warren released her highly anticipated Medicare for All proposal on Thursday after pressure from her Democratic presidential rivals.

Warren's plan does not include a tax hike on the middle class, unlike her progressive rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has said tax hikes are needed to help pay for the program.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Wow...Next thing you know John Delaney will be panning it.

And Bullock, oh please, not Bullock!

[vsrazdem]

2. Don't ya just love all these psychics.

[ritapria]

3. I am not trying to be mean

But why is Michael Bennet still running for President ? ... How long will he continue to embarrass himself ?

[backtoblue]

4. The next debate outa be...interesting nt

[Bradshaw3]

5. Bennet as the nominee: This isn't going to happen

[highplainsdem]

6. Paul Krugman agrees that it isn't realistic:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287331136

[pangaia]

9. Bobby Reich seems to think it works, if I am not mistaken....

[peggysue2]

10. Yes, underestimating costs and overestimating revenue is . . .

a recipe for disaster, particularly since this issue could easily cost us the election.

That being said, Elizabeth Warren made a decision to wed herself to Medicare 4 All. Unfortunate when the far more popular and realistic public option will put us on the same road.

Sorry, but this isn't the hill to die on, IMHO. Not when there are so many Americans with chronic to deadly conditions who simply cannot afford a major disruption in healthcare services and union members not ready to give up healthcare benefits they've spent years fighting for. I agree with Krugman, this is not realistic.

A major mistake.

[BlueMTexpat]

15. When did Krugman,

who is an economist and an academic (whom I admire, btw) become an expert on finance, financial transactions, law and the nitty-gritty details of any?

Yes, I know that he is a Nobel Prize Winner - but in economic science, not in the areas mentioned above, which are each very different. Please don't try to tell me that Elizabeth is not, when she has demonstrated that she is.

Besides, even Krugman was not wholly dismissive.

Certainly not as dismissive as some here try to make out.

[YOHABLO]

7. I can't stand it when candidates pretend they know what voters are thinking.

[pangaia]

8. Her numbers have also been supported by experts... but.. oohh well.....

[Aaron Pereira]

11. I'm not sure he's the expert on 'things that aren't going to happen'.

[abqtommy]

12. I put this in perspective by remembering that changes that would strengthen Social Security

or the ACA/Obamacare aren't going to happen due to partisan push-back by the reTHUGS and their
1% enablers. That's why we can't have effective programs.

[Gothmog]

13. Elizabeth Warren's latest health plan is causing concerns for some centrist, moderate and rural Demo

I and other true Democrats have been working hard to turn Texas blue. We hope to pick up six congressional seats in addition to the two seats we flipped in 2018. We have a chance to defeat Cornyn in the Senate. The Democrats picked up 12 seats in the Texas House and need 9 more to take control of the Texas House prior to the next redistricting session. If Biden is the nominee, Texas will be a battleground state. If Warren or sanders is the nominee. Texas will not be a battle ground state and we can forget about keeping the two seats that we flipped in 2018

Speaker Pelosi is worried about losing control of the House with a weak top of the ballot ticket with a program that will kill down ballot candidates
.

Link to tweet

The most-vulnerable Democrat in Colorado’s state House, Bri Buentello, is dreading door-knocking in her rural district now that Elizabeth Warren dropped her massive “Medicare for All” plan into the presidential arena.
“This is going to cause down-ballot damage in swing districts and states if she’s the nominee,” Buentello says, describing how her Pueblo-area constituents — who voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016 — were already echoing criticisms about a giant, one-size-fits-all big government run plan that cancels private health insurance and raises taxes.
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The fear of blowback is indicative of the broad and largely negative response to Warren’s proposal from centrist, moderate and rural Democrats — many of whom, like Buentello, back Joe Biden in the primary. And it exposes the fault line between those who fret about winning voters in the center and the activist progressive base propelling Warren to the front of the Democratic pack.

The long-awaited plan to raise the $20.5 trillion she says is needed to pay for single-payer health care in America is Warren’s attempt to answer critics after weeks of questions from rival candidates about the cost of her proposal and the prospect of higher taxes. Warren promised, as she has in the past, that "not one penny in middle-class tax increases” is necessary to finance the effort.

[Capt. America]

14. Go away Bennet.