Sanders Doubles-Down On Health Care And ‘Medicare For All’ Is Centerpiece
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is stepping up his campaign-trail focus on health care by increasingly touting his single-payer health care policy. At the same time, most 2020 presidential hopefuls seem to "move in lock step" toward gun control policies.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is seeking to break through a congested Democratic presidential race by campaigning more aggressively on Medicare-for-all, a risky strategy his advisers hope will shift the contest in his favor amid signs he has lost ground in recent months. On the campaign trail, Sanders increasingly touts his plan for a government program to insure all Americans, reminding voters that rivals followed his lead. And aides and allies have grown more hostile toward competing ideas, while Sanders鈥檚 team has planned more frequent events and initiatives focused on health care. (Sullivan, 8/12)
Democrats running for president have engaged in bitter disputes this year over topics like health care, immigration and criminal justice. But after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, jolted the nation earlier this month, the field of 2020 contenders seemed to move in lock step toward more aggressive gun control positions without resistance from the party鈥檚 moderate voices. (Epstein and Kaplan, 8/12)
Twenty-five years ago, Democratic support for an assault weapons ban was a major reason the party lost control of the House. Now top Democrats want to revive the fight. On both the presidential campaign trail and Capitol Hill, leading Democrats are either calling to reinstate the ban or are pressing for a new one. The 1994 ban barred Americans from buying certain military-style firearms and high-capacity magazines for a decade, until Republicans let it expire in 2004. (Stolberg, 8/12)
