Warren Faces Increasing Pressure To Explain How She’d Pay For A ‘Medicare For All’ System
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says that she supports rival candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) health care plan. But she also has faced criticism from members of her own party that she's been "evasive" when it comes to paying for such a system. Other news on the elections looks at more candidates' health plans, where the Democrats stand on gun control, and the pregnancy discrimination story that inspired women to speak out.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been dogged from the debate stage to town halls to late-night TV shows by questions about whether she plans to unveil a signature health-care proposal鈥攁nd how she would pay for expanding government-run insurance. Health care consistently polls as the No. 1 issue Democratic voters are concerned about. But unlike her top rivals, Ms. Warren hasn鈥檛 detailed her preferred policies, instead saying she鈥檚 鈥渨ith Bernie鈥 Sanders in supporting a government-run Medicare for All system. (Jamerson and Parti, 10/13)
White House hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)聽drew sharp contrasts聽with some of her progressive primary competitors Friday night as she sought to burnish her moderate bona fides.聽... Klobuchar said single payer health care plans would kick millions of Americans off their insurance and that their plans for free public colleges and universities would allow rich families to exploit taxpayer dollars. (Axelrod, 10/12)
Pete Buttigieg sees a path to the top tier of the Democratic primary field, elbowing his way between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on one side and Joe Biden on the other. At the center of Buttigieg鈥檚 push is his health care plan, which the South Bend, Ind., mayor has dubbed 鈥淢edicare for all who want it.鈥 The plan would extend a public health insurance option to Americans without ending the private insurance market, an effect of the plan put forward by Sanders and endorsed by Warren. (Strauss, 10/13)
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are far more forceful and united on gun control than their predecessors, endorsing a wide range of policies that past nominees sidestepped or rejected, according to a New York Times survey of the 19 campaigns. The political terrain on guns has been shifting for several years in response to a seemingly unending series of mass shootings and a newly emboldened network of advocacy groups. Policies that were dividing lines among Democrats have become baselines, and proposals that were politically untouchable are now firmly on the table. (Astor, 10/13)
For 41 years, federal law has banned pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. But the stories tumbling out this week show it's far from eradicated. Prompted by presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's claim that she was forced out of a teaching job in 1971 because she was pregnant, scores of women have shared similar experiences on social media. (Durbin, 10/12)
Discriminating against a woman for being pregnant or a mother is illegal, and has been since the 1970s. But clearly, that鈥檚 not stopped the practice. Katherine Goldstein, a Cog contributor and host of The Double Shift podcast (whose submission is featured below), wrote a wildly popular piece for the New York Times last year about the anti-mom bias at work. (Axelson and Carr Toth, 10/11)