As Senator Bernie Sanders's polling numbers surge in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton's campaign is going on the offensive.
Clinton is attempting to spin Sanders's longtime support for a single-payer health-care system as a radical idea that would harm the middle class-and one that has no realistic funding source. And it's quickly turning into the fiercest debate between the two candidates in a primary that so far has been short on drama.
Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, accused Sanders of wanting to do away Medicare and Medicaid, which she said would "strip millions and millions of people of their health insurance." That's a stretch, given that a single-payer system would actually expand those programs to all Americans.
Clinton's top staffers have also blasted Sanders for not specifying how much he would spend on such a plan, which is estimated to cost as much as $15 trillion.
Why's @BernieSanders suddenly not keen to release his single payer plan? Because it raises middle-class taxes by 9% pic.twitter.com/7etKNVBvAT
- Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) January 13, 2016The Clinton camp's choice of single-payer as its main line of attack on Sanders has prompted some Democrats to cry hypocrisy. They point back to 2008, when Clinton assailed Barack Obama for attacking her on single-payer. "Since when do Democrats attack one another on universal health care?" she asked at the time.
In response to Clinton's decision to reverse course and attack a longtime Democratic health-care policy priority, Sanders posted this sarcastic Twitter troll yesterday.
"To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans..."-@HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/XMVPEx8fT8
- Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 13, 2016As the Iowa Democratic Caucus rapidly approaches, the tit for tat will only get nastier.
