A14 The Nation The Boston Globe THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
front-runner in the Democratic
race.
“We heard it tonight — a yes
or no question that didn’t get a
yes or no answer,” said Pete
Buttigieg, mayor of South
Bend., Ind. “Your signature,
senator, is to have a plan for ev-
erything. Except this.”
By refusing to concede that
taxes will go up to finance the
plan, Warren is denying Re-
publicans a video clip that
could be used to vilify Medi-
care for All — and her candida-
cy — in attack ads should she
become the nominee. But by
spending weeks running away
from the question, Warren has
also opened herself up to
charges of evasion and even
dishonesty from her Democrat-
ic rivals, and entangled herself
in health policy debates that
have eclipsed her signature is-
sues like campaign finance and
trade.
Warren has never released
her own health care plan, but
that could change soon. Her
campaign has been consulting
with an economist on the is-
sue, and an aide said Wednes-
day that she is reviewing op-
tions for funding Medicare for
All, including those suggested
by Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders in his 2016 presiden-
tial race. The Warren cam-
paign reiterated that whatever
plan she lands upon, costs will
go up for wealthier Americans
and big corporations, while
they will go down for middle-
class families.
Warren’s allies argue that
her tactic of refusing to talk
about taxes is smart.
“While some pundits may
be frustrated that she’s not re-
peating insurance industryuWARREN
Continued from Page Atalking points, Democratic vot-
ers who care about electability
are very happy that she’s stand-
ing her ground and not giving
Republicans rope to hang
Democrats with,” said Adam
Green, cofounder of the Pro-
gressive Change Campaign
Committee.
Green added that Warren’s
opponents would use any ad-
mission she makes on taxes to
give the false impression that
Medicare for All would be
more expensive for middle-
class Americans on average.
But Tuesday’s debate
showed the pitfalls of that
strategy. Even Sanders, who
wrote the bill Warren supports,
did not come to her defense on
the debate stage.
“I do think it is appropriate
to acknowledge that taxes will
go up,” he said. Senator Amy
Klobuchar praised Sanders for
being “honest” about his plan,
pointedly telling Warren, “We
owe it to the American people
to tell them where we’re going
to send the invoice.”
The pile on continued on
Wednesday, as former vice
president Joe Biden told re-porters that Warren is “going
to have to tell the truth” about
Medicare for All, and suggest-
ed her evasion cut into her im-
age as a straight-talking popu-
list who can break down com-
plicated policies for regular
people. “The person with a
plan for everything has no plan
for the single most consequen-
tial issue in this election in the
minds of the American people,
across the board,” Biden told
reporters in Ohio. “And you
know, credibility matters.”
Sanders has introduced two
different Medicare for All bills,
with independent 10-year cost
estimates varying from $
trillion to $32 trillion.
Warren’s policy team has ex-
amined at least one plan to pay
for Medicare for All conceived
by Robert Pollin, an economics
professor at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst, who
said he’s been consulting with
the campaign for weeks. Pol-
lin’s plan uses a wealth tax on
assets over $1 million, a sales
tax on nonessential goods, and
a tax on businesses with annu-
al revenues of over $1 million.
He defended Warren’s focuson overall costs in the debate,
explaining that under his pro-
posal, a family that makes
$60,000 a year and now spends
$9,000 on health insurance
would, under Medicare for All,
pay $900 in additional sales tax
and spend no money on health
insurance. “Do you really think
people care if it’s taxes or co-
pays?” he asked. “I mean,
they’re saving $8,000.”
“I think there are people
who want to have the story told
in this way because the word
‘taxes’ is scary,” Pollin added.
“If you say taxes, then people
are going to freak out.”
But Warren’s unwillingness
to discuss how to finance a ma-
jor proposal is out of character
for a candidate with a reputa-
tion as a policy heavyweight.
Her sweeping portfolio of
plans that helped her surge to
the top of the crowded field
was built on the back of an un-
usual and bold revenue genera-
tor. Warren’s “wealth tax”
would claw back 2 cents for ev-
ery dollar over $50 million in
assets owned by the nation’s
wealthiest people, and has be-
come a rallying cry among her
supporters. The tax proposal
paved the way for Warren to
promise universal affordable
child care and other new do-
mestic programs without hav-
ing to face criticism of financial
irresponsibility.
But with Medicare for All,
Warren has displayed less cre-
ativity or enthusiasm for the
details. At the beginning of her
campaign, she appeared to
hesitate on whether she sup-
ported a quick transition to a
nationalized health care sys-
tem with no private insurance,
before declaring unequivocally
at the first Democratic debate
in June that she was “with Ber-
nie.” The move has shored up
support for Warren among the
progressive activist wing of the
party, but is seen by some polit-
ical operatives as risky.
Only 42 percent of Demo-
crats strongly favor a Medicare
for All system, according to a
recent Kaiser Family Founda-
tion poll.
That’s compared with 63
percent of Democrats who
strongly favor a “public op-
tion” — a government insur-
ance plan that would coexist
with and compete with private
plans.
“Most Democratic primary
voters agree that fixing the Af-
fordable Care Act is the right
thing to do,” argued Antjuan
Seawright, a South Carolina-
based Democratic strategist.
“In 2018 we ran on strengthen-
ing the ACA, fixing the bugs,
and making it work — not dis-
mantling it and going to anoth-
er form of health care system.”
But Mary Anne Marsh, a
Boston-based Democratic
strategist, argued that Warren
needed to enthusiastically back
Medicare for All in order to
clear a path to the nomination.
“It helps her consolidate the
progressives and avoid the
kind of tortured experience
that Sanders’ folks gave Hillary
Clinton all the way through to
the end,” Marsh said. She
pointed out that Warren’s
equivocation on the details has
left herself room to maneuver
on Medicare for All should she
win the nomination.
“I think you’ll start to hear
what her view of that would
be,” she said.Liz Goodwin can be reached at
[email protected].
Follow her on Twitter
@lizcgoodwin.Warren quiet on health plan specifics
JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senator Elizabeth Warren has not discussed specifics on
paying for Medicare for All.844-753-LONG | LongRoofing.com
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