Sen. Bernie SandersBernard (Bernie) SandersHillicon Valley: Assange faces US charges after arrest | Trump says WikiLeaks ‘not my thing’ | Uber officially files to go public | Bezos challenges retail rivals on wages | Kremlin tightens its control over internet Overnight Health Care — Presented by PCMA — Sanders welcomes fight with Trump over ‘Medicare for all’ | DOJ attorney in ObamaCare case leaving | NYC mayor defends vaccination mandate | Ohio gov signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill Former DNC chairman endorses Buttigieg for president MORE’s (I-Vt.) campaign on Thursday hit back at President TrumpDonald John TrumpJulián Castro: Presidential candidates should be required to release tax returns Hillary Clinton says Assange must ‘answer for what he has done’ after arrest Herman Cain expected to withdraw from consideration for Fed: report MORE, a day after the White House attacked Sanders’s “Medicare for all” bill.
“This campaign’s message to Trump is simple: we welcome this fight because we are going to defeat you in the election and guarantee health care as a right to all people,” Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement.
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The back-and-forth highlights the role that health care could play in the 2020 election, with Republicans thinking that attacking Medicare for all is a winning strategy, but Sanders welcoming the fight after a number of Democrats focused on the health care issue while winning control of the House in 2018.
Several other Democratic White House hopefuls have backed Sanders’s bill, including Sens. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisOvernight Health Care — Presented by PCMA — Sanders welcomes fight with Trump over ‘Medicare for all’ | DOJ attorney in ObamaCare case leaving | NYC mayor defends vaccination mandate | Ohio gov signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill Will Biden lead a ‘return to normalcy’ in 2020? Kamala Harris: ‘I am a gun owner’ for personal protection MORE (D-Calif.), Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerOvernight Health Care — Presented by PCMA — Sanders welcomes fight with Trump over ‘Medicare for all’ | DOJ attorney in ObamaCare case leaving | NYC mayor defends vaccination mandate | Ohio gov signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill Poll: Democrats evenly split on reparations Poll: Biden has double-digit lead over Dem field in Iowa MORE (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenJulián Castro: Presidential candidates should be required to release tax returns Overnight Health Care — Presented by PCMA — Sanders welcomes fight with Trump over ‘Medicare for all’ | DOJ attorney in ObamaCare case leaving | NYC mayor defends vaccination mandate | Ohio gov signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill On The Money — Presented by Job Creators Network — Fourth GOP senator opposes Cain for Fed | Weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level since 1969 | Kudlow says Trump may allow 5B in cuts if Congress doesn’t act | Uber files for IPO MORE (D-Mass.), though some of them have also touted more incremental solutions.
Republicans have zeroed in on Sanders’s plan eliminating private health coverage and replacing it with a government plan.
“Self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing a total government takeover of healthcare that would actually hurt seniors, eliminate private health insurance for 180 million Americans, and cripple our economy and future generations with unprecedented debt,” the White House said on Wednesday, in response to Sanders introducing his updated bill.
Shakir pointed to Trump’s previous praise of single-payer health care before he became president.
“Donald Trump, who used to express his admiration for single-payer health care, has decided to put out statements that do the bidding of the largest insurance and pharmaceutical companies,” Shakir said. “Trump is defending industries of greed that throw millions of Americans off their health coverage while paying health industry CEOs more than $1 billion in a single year.”
Separately, Democrats have also attacked Trump for backing a lawsuit seeking to overturn ObamaCare.
Trump has countered that he wants to come up with a better plan than the Affordable Care Act, but has not offered any specifics while stating that Republicans will be the “party of health care.”