Democrats are bailing on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for their sweeping “Medicare for All” plans as pollsters and voters nationwide reject the idea and moderate Democrats privately fear they’re being left out in the cold by progressives who want to jettison the largely popular Affordable Care Act.
Rumors flew over the weekend that moderate Democrats were complaining to party leadership about being left hanging, especially in tight races and in battleground states. They were mostly concerned with the lack of interest voters are showing in impeachment, but The New York Times reports Tuesday that they’re also panicking over Medicare for All, which isn’t resonating with “swing state” voters.
“Warnings are being issued at all levels of the Democratic Party, from union members who fear losing hard-won benefits, to candidates running in swing districts, all the way up to former President Barack Obama, who offered a pointed warning about the risks of overreach at a gathering of donors in Washington, D.C., this month,” the Times said. “People close to the former president said his remarks were rooted in his experience passing the health care law, which prompted his concerns about how willing voters would be to embrace an even more sweeping change.”
Democrats believe “Obamacare” was critical to their wins in 2018, though that doesn’t seem born out by polling (most Dems seemed motivated by a desire to show President Donald Trump that his future wasn’t necessarily secure). But regardless, a shift leftward isn’t popular among states the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee will need to secure to win the White House.
A New York Times poll from several weeks ago sent Democrats panicking. The poll, taken in key states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, showed only former Vice President Joe Biden giving Donald Trump a run for his money in key states, and even then, Biden was mostly running within the margin of error against the current president. Warren and Sanders both fell far behind Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, where voters told pollsters they responded to Trump’s message of economic populism, not full-scale wealth redistribution.
The New York Times reports that Democrats are looking to head off trouble from Medicare for All before it claims more victims. Apparently, Warren’s swift decline in the polls was at least partly the result of her inability to adequately explain how she planned to pay for the multi-trillion dollar program, other than to soak corporate billionaires who are already being called upon to finance her student loan bailout, her “Green New Deal,” and her massive Federal spending package. Warren refused to admit that she would likely have to raise taxes on the middle class.
Sanders kneecapped her, openly stating that the middle class would have to pay extra taxes for increased public healthcare spending, but he promised that they’d see a “benefit” in better care — something not even hardcore Sanders supporters seemed ready to believe.
But the bigger fear may not be that Republicans will seize on “Medicare for All,” but that painting Democrats as “socialists” resonates with voters — and turns them against Democratic legislators.
“From Michigan to Georgia, North Dakota to Texas, Democratic elected officials, strategists and pollsters are warning that the party’s commitment to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act — widely seen as critical to electoral gains in 2018 and 2019 — could slip away as a political advantage in 2020 if Republicans seize on Medicare for all and try to paint Democrats as socialists on health care,” the Times explains.
That may be bad news for Dems, but its good news for President Donald Trump — one of his favorite insults, “socialist,” seems to make inroads with voters.