The Washington Post - 02.11.2019

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

a provision that would require

companies to send most of the

funds they currently spend on

employee health contributions

to the federal government.

The plan also expands War-

ren’s signature wealth tax pro-

posal, so that people with a net

worth above $1 billion would pay

a 6 percent tax rather than the

original 3 percent. (Those with a

worth of less than $1 billion but

more than $50 million would

still pay 2 percent.)

The plan would also cut mili-

tary spending, and it would take

advantage of what Warren says

would be significant savings

from eliminating the labyrin-

thine bureaucracy of private in-

surance.

Warren contended her plan

does not include a tax on the

middle class, a position some

disputed. Rather, she said, it will

result in a $11 trillion tax cut for

working Americans. “Congratu-

lations on the raise!” Warren

wrote in her Medium post.

The senator also said that in

coming weeks she will roll out a

transition plan, adding, “Of

course, moving to this kind of

system will not be easy and will

not happen overnight.”

[email protected]

Matt Viser contributed to this report.

Warren did secure praise from

key players on the left, a popula-

tion she’s actively courting. Ady

Barkan, an influential health-

care activist who met privately

with Warren in California over

the summer, lauded her plan as

“perhaps the greatest feat of

public policy jujitsu that I have

ever seen.”

Jared Bernstein, an economic

adviser to Biden during the

Obama administration, also

praised the plan’s deftness.

“Politically, health-care reform

can be the Afghanistan of domes-

tic policy. You can get completely

bogged down there,” he said, but

Warren’s detailed plan provides a

way out of the trap.

“When you don’t have an an-

swer, you’re just going to kind of

flounder around, and at this

point she can she can very much

argue, ‘Go read page 14 and

appendix two, and then we’ll

talk,’ ” he said.

The debate over health care is

particularly resonant for Demo-

crats because they say Republi-

cans are vulnerable on the issue,

due to their attempts to elimi-

nate the Affordable Care Act, or

Obamacare, which has grown

increasingly popular.

Warren’s funding proposal

mostly involves hitting corpora-

tions and the wealthy, including

questioned its assumptions. Ken-

neth E. Thorpe, chairman of the

health policy department at Em-

ory University and an expert on

Medicare-for-all, said Warren

was significantly underestimat-

ing the costs.

He said the cost in new federal

spending would be $35 trillion

over 10 years, about $15 trillion

more than Warren’s estimate.

“There’s no way it’s $20 trillion. I

don’t know why they’d put out

that number,” Thorpe said. “The

bottom line is, even with all the

big numbers she’s got in there,

you’re only getting 55, 60 percent

of the way there.”

come up with a funding blue-

print.

“After the last debate she, she

felt like, ‘Okay, I’m going to dig

in,’ ” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal

(D-Wash.). Jayapal is the lead

sponsor of the House version of

the Medicare-for-all plan, and

she has been having conversa-

tions with Warren about it for

months.

She praised Warren’s efforts.

“It’s just really clear that this is

not a question of: Can we do it

viably?” Jayapal said. “It’s a ques-

tion of: Do we have the political

will to take on the entrenched

interests?”

Republicans were quick to

pounce, providing a preview of

what a general election could

look like should Warren be the

nominee. The plan will “hurt

millions by eliminating their

jobs and private health insur-

ance while simultaneously bank-

rupting the country and hurting

the quality of care,” said Steve

Guest, a spokesman for the Re-

publican National Committee.

The Daily Caller, a conserva-

tive news outlet, posted a politi-

cal cartoon depicting Warren’s

plan as a massive Trojan horse,

one that looks appealing but

contains “crippling taxation.”

Warren cited several experts

in rolling out her plan, but others

Several other Democratic can-

didates back a “public option,”

under which a Medicare-type

plan would be available to every-

one but would not be universal.

“She accepted Bernie Sand-

ers’s Medicare-for-all program

and then had to reverse engineer

how to pay for some of it. But it’s

not terribly persuasive,” said Sen.

Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), an-

other candidate for president.

Former vice president Joe

Biden charged that Warren’s cost

estimates were off by trillions

and there was no reasonable

path to paying for such a sprawl-

ing health care overhaul.

“She’s making it up. There is

no way,” Biden said in an inter-

view with “PBS NewsHour.”

Sanders remained silent on

Warren’s proposal Friday, and his

campaign declined to comment

on it. His reaction will be a key

test for those on the left, signal-

ing whether Warren has hewed

closely enough to Sanders’s ideas

to win support from his voters if

his campaign falters.

Warren endured sustained at-

tacks from her Democratic rivals

during the last presidential de-

bate, in large part because of her

inability to explain how she’d pay

for Medicare-for-all. It was short-

ly after that Oct. 15 faceoff that

her staff ramped up efforts to

Americans from additional costs
but positioned herself squarely
on the side of embracing steep
tax hikes — effectively daring
President Trump, should she win
the nomination, to brand her a
tax-and-spend liberal.
“Health care is a human right,
and we need a system that re-
flects our values. That system is
Medicare-for-all,” Warren wrote
in a Medium post published
Friday. “A key step in winning the
public debate over Medicare-for-
all will be explaining what this
plan costs — and how to pay for
it.”
Centrist Democrats moved
swiftly Friday to sound the alarm
that Warren, who leads the pack
in recent early-state polls and
has amassed what many see as
the most effective Democratic
campaign operation, risks hand-
ing the Republicans a major
advantage.
Not only would Warren have
to defend new taxes as part of her
health plan — on top of roughly
$5 trillion in new taxes she has
already advocated to cover a
range of other proposals — but
she would be attempting to con-
vince Americans to support vir-
tually erasing more than
150 million private health insur-
ance plans.
“The average Democrat in
Ohio is going to say: ‘Wait a
minute, I mean, how do you do
that? How do you do all of that?
Free this and free that? How does
that happen?’ ” said Rep. Tim
Ryan (D-Ohio), a moderate who
recently dropped out of the
presidential race. “We just want
to beat Trump. That’s the revolu-
tion. Beating Trump.”
While not specifically com-
menting on Warren’s plan, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
used a television interview Fri-
day to point to the potential
electoral dangers for Democrats
of backing such a program in
2020.
“I’m not a big fan of Medicare-
for-all,” Pelosi told Bloomberg
TV, adding: “Hopefully, as we
emerge into the election year, the
mantra will be ‘more health care
for all Americans,’ because there
is a comfort level that some
people have with their current
private insurance.”
Others chided Warren for
backing herself into a corner by
supporting an idea proposed by
her main liberal rival, Sen. Ber-
nie Sanders, the democratic so-
cialist from Vermont, and then
failing to consider how to fund it.
Sanders has said that middle-
class taxes would go up, though
overall costs would go down.

WARREN FROM A

BY JOSH DAWSEY

President Trump has aban-
doned the idea of releasing pro-
posals to combat gun violence
that his White House debated for
months following mass shootings
in August, according to White
House officials and lawmakers, a
reversal from the summer when
the president insisted he would
offer policies to curb firearm
deaths.
Trump has been counseled by
political advisers, including cam-
paign manager Brad Parscale and
acting chief of staff Mick Mulva-
ney, that gun legislation could
splinter his political coalition,
which he needs to stick together
for his reelection bid, particularly
amid an impeachment battle.
The president no longer asks
about the issue, and aides from
the Domestic Policy Council,
once working on a plan with eight
to 12 tenets, have moved on to
other topics, according to aides
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to describe the private
deliberations.
Four White House officials said
there haven’t been substantive
discussions in weeks. And a per-
son close to the National Rifle
Association said discussions be-
tween the White House and the
group have gone silent in a sign
that the powerful gun lobby is no
longer concerned the White
House will act. Trump was
pressed repeatedly by NRA Presi-
dent Wayne LaPierre this summer

and early fall to not propose any

gun-control measures.

“President Trump quietly

moved gun control to the side and

let it be replaced by breaking

news,” said Dan Eberhart, a major

GOP donor who said Trump is

better off not advancing proposals

at this time. “I suspect that was

the plan all along.”

The White House’s position is a

marked, if not wholly unexpected,

change from when the president

vowed he would make a push to

pass more restrictive laws af-

ter two gunmen killed scores of

people in Dayton, Ohio, and El

Paso in early August, creating na-

tional outrage.

Trump repeatedly said he was a

supporter of more aggressive

background checks, would con-

sider “red flag” laws that allow

authorities to temporarily take

weapons away from someone

deemed a danger, and frequently

mentioned the need to focus on

mental health as it relates to gun

violence.

He made a flurry of calls to

lawmakers while crossing the

country to visit victims and said

he would be willing to go against

the desires of the NRA.

In the face of skepticism that he

would not push hard for gun re-

strictions his party has long op-

posed, Trump insisted he was seri-

ous about the issue and would

release proposals.

“We’re going to take a look at a

lot of different things. And we’ll be

reporting back in a fairly short

period of time,” he told reporters

on Sept. 11. “There are a lot of

things under discussion. Some

things will never happen, and

some things can, really, very much

— some very meaningful things

can happen.”

Trump could always reverse

course and embrace changes to

gun laws, particularly if there is

another shooting, but the presi-

dent and his top aides are intense-

ly focused on the impeachment

inquiry and moving to aggressive-

ly shore up Republican support in

the face of new revelations about

his dealings with Ukraine that are

central to House Democrats’ ef-

forts to remove him from office.

Administration officials are also

weighing a new proposal about

legal immigration to be released

around the holidays, as well as a

new round of tax cuts and pushing

forward on a U.S., Canada and

Mexico trade deal that adminis-

tration officials have touted —

issues they believe will appeal to

GOP lawmakers and the presi-

dent’s base of supporters.

On Thursday, White House

press secretary Stephanie

Grisham accused House Demo-

crats of pursuing an “illegitimate

impeachment proceeding”

against Trump at the expense of

policy priorities, including “re-

ducing gun violence.”

House Democrats argue that

they have already passed gun-

control legislation and that it is up

to Trump and the Republican-

controlled Senate to act.

Several senators working with

Trump on gun proposals said they

have not been involved in any

recent talks.

“I’ve even forgotten my own

bill. One minute you’re working

on red flag, the next you’re work-

ing on Syria, then you’re doing an

impeachment resolution, then

you’re going to get an award in

Columbia. It’s like being a torna-

do. I hope we get back to it,” said

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.),

who was working on the issue

with Trump.

A White House spokesman did

not provide a comment for this

story.

Democrats in the 2020 cam-

paign have universally favored

background checks and to ban

assault weapons. Some have

called for a gun buyback pro-

gram.

Former congressman Beto

O’Rourke of Texas made gun con-

trol the central focus of his presi-

dential campaign following the El

Paso shooting, but he floundered

in the polls and announced Friday

that he was dropping out of the

race.

When asked in August about

criticism that he would take peo-

ple’s guns away, former vice presi-

dent Joe Biden said, “Bingo!

You’re right, if you have an assault

weapon.”

But it has not proved to be the

dominant topic on the trail.

Trump’s waning interest in gun

legislation began before the im-

peachment inquiry, as a fierce

battle played out inside the West

Wing.

In August, Domestic Policy

Council staffers began to craft a

plan that was set to be released in

early September. There were

meetings on a communications

strategy for releasing the plan,

according to a person who attend-

ed the sessions.

Several Oval Office meetings

occurred with Trump, who was

repeatedly pushed by his daugh-

ter Ivanka Trump, according to

her supporters and critics in the

building.

She was joined in lobbying the

president to do something, such

as expanding background checks,

by Attorney General William P.

Barr. Jared Kushner, the presi-

dent’s son-in-law, has largely

stayed out of the issue, officials

say.

Trump faced pressure from

Mulvaney, the vice president’s of-

fice and conservative lawmakers

to abandon making any proposals

or to at least tread carefully in

doing so.

Trump grew disenchanted with

red-flag laws after hearing from

Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and

Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other

conservatives that they could be

used to take away guns from law-

abiding citizens, according to

White House officials.

And Trump believed back-

ground checks — at the very mini-

mum — needed another name,

according to people who spoke

with him. “He was worried about

branding,” said a person who

spoke with Trump on the phone

about the matter.

Trump was also shown polling

that gun-control measures could

depress turnout among his sup-

porters in the 2020 election, ac-

cording to a campaign official.

Officials from the NRA made

dozens of calls to White House

aides, and Trump spoke with

LaPierre at least six times, accord-

ing to two senior White House

officials.

Tensions among some in the

White House and the moderate

Democrats and Republicans who

Trump was discussing gun legisla-

tion with began to rise as talks

stalled.

Michael Williams, a former gun

lobbyist who now works for Mul-

vaney, had a loud argument with

Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.)

and Graham in one call, according

to a person with knowledge of the

conversation. Manchin and

Graham believed Williams was

seeking to tank any bill.

At one point, Graham com-

plained about Mulvaney’s han-

dling of the issue, according to

people who heard the comment.

Later, White House officials

said they felt they could not take

on gun control during impeach-

ment. Asked if the president was

ever serious about the issue, one

senior administration official

said: “He could have been if the

circumstances all played out just

right.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

received a call from Ivanka Trump

in September, according to offi-

cials familiar with the matter, who

promised the administration

would continue to work on gun

control.

But Murphy has mostly lost

hope, he said in a recent interview.

“I haven’t heard anything di-

rectly from the White House in

weeks and would be surprised if

something happens at this point,”

he said. “They’ve got to be willing

to break from the NRA if we are

going to do anything real.”

A person close to Manchin said

he had not heard from the admin-

istration in more than a month. A

Murphy aide said the senator had

not had any discussions with the

administration since Sept. 24.

On Sept. 24, Trump told House

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) how

much progress they had made on

a gun-control proposal and that

he was talking to Democrats, ac-

cording to a person familiar with

the call. Later that day, she an-

nounced an impeachment inqui-

ry, and no conversations have oc-

curred since, the official said.

“He’s not going to take on

things related to his base in the

middle of all this,” said Chris Rud-

dy, a longtime ally, echoing the

view that Trump will not do any-

thing to antagonize his support-

ers while impeachment hangs

over his head.

[email protected]

Trump backs o≠ plan to o≠er ideas to curb gun violence

Warren

details her

health-care

proposal

MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released a $20.5 trillion health-care plan Friday that includes a raft of new taxes. The U.S. senator from Massachusetts

said the new taxes would affect businesses and the wealthy, stressing that the middle class would not have to carry the burden of funding a Medicare-for-all system.

Advisers fear issue

may divide GOP amid

impeachment inquiry

“The average Democrat

in Ohio is going

to say: ‘Wait a minute,

I mean, how do you do

that?... Free this and

free that? How does

that happen?’ ”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), about Sen.

Elizabeth Warren’s health-care plan