House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that progressive proposals like Medicare for All may alienate voters in key 2020 swing-states.
“What works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan,” Pelosi told Bloomberg News. “What works in Michigan works in San Francisco — talking about workers’ rights and sharing prosperity.”
“Remember November,” she added. “You must win the Electoral College.”
“As a left-wing San Francisco liberal I can say to these people: What are you thinking?” Pelosi said. “You can ask the left — they’re unhappy with me for not being a socialist.”
Pelosi specifically cited Medicare for All as a proposal that she thinks would alienate moderate voters.
“Protect the Affordable Care Act — I think that’s the path to health care for all Americans. Medicare For All has its complications,” she said, adding that “the Affordable Care Act is a better benefit than Medicare.”
Warren fends off critics:
Warren slammed her Democratic critics on Friday after releasing a funding plan for her Medicare for All proposal.
“Democrats are not going to win by repeating Republican talking points and by dusting off the points of view of the giant insurance companies and the giant drug companies who don’t want to see any change in the law that will bite into their profits,” Warren said in criticism largely aimed at Joe Biden. “But if anyone wants to defend keeping those high profits for insurance companies and those high profits for drug companies and not making the top 1 percent pay a fair share in taxes and not making corporations pay a fair share in taxes, then I think they’re running in the wrong presidential primary.”
Is Pelosi right?
A set of polls released by The New York Times Monday showed that Biden, a centrist who has criticized Warren and Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, is in much better shape to defeat Trump in key battleground states.
The polls showed that Biden leads Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, and Arizona among likely voters. Sanders only leads Trump in Michigan and Warren does not lead in any of the battleground states.
