Biden-Harris rivalry flares from the start in health care discussion
DETROIT — Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California renewed their political rivalry almost instantly on the debate stage Wednesday night, as Biden accused Harris of peddling “double talk” on the central campaign issue of health care and Harris defended her newly unveiled plan as a pragmatic version of singlepayer care.
Standing side by side in Detroit, the two candidates whose clash over race and school integration defined the first round of debates in June engaged each other at once on the question of how to cover Americans’ medical costs. This time Biden took the offensive, noting that Harris had rolled out “several plans so far,” the most recent of which would take 10 years to kick in and cost trillions to disrupt the existing system of private insurance.
Voters, Biden said, should be skeptical “anytime somebody tells you you’re going to get something good in 10 years.”
Harris fired back quickly. “You’re just simply inaccurate in what you’re describing,” she said, countering that Biden’s proposal to create an elective government-backed health insurance option would leave many Americans uncovered.
“Your plan, by contrast, leaves out almost 10 million Americans,” she said, adding, “The cost of doing nothing is far too expensive.”
But Biden persisted. Echoing some of the criticism that centrist Democrats leveled against Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in Tuesday night’s debate, the former vice president warned that Harris’ plan would be costly, disruptive and slow to take effect.
Defending his own proposal, Biden called it a prudent update to the system devised under the Obama administration.
“My response is: Obamacare is working,” he said.
It was the second night of lengthy and contentious exchanges among the candidates over the future of health care in the country. Like the 10 contenders who debated Tuesday, the candidates split over whether the country should retain some form of the Affordable Care Act or completely transform the system into some form of “Medicare for All.”
The exchanges over health care on both nights exposed a fundamental schism in the party, between more traditional reformers who are seeking to improve on the policies of the Obama administration and aggressive liberals who hope to overhaul the U.S. economy and government in a comprehensive way.
At several early moments in the debate, other candidates onstage exhorted Democrats to keep their attention on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s efforts to strike down the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York told viewers that for Republicans, “their whole goal is to take away your health care,” while Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey lamented that “the person enjoying this debate most right now is Donald Trump.” He implored Democratic rivals to stop “saying one is unrealistic and the other doesn’t care enough.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City did not even wait for a question: He used his opening statement to blast both the leading candidates onstage, Biden and Harris, depicting them as guardians of the status quo and vowing that he would “tax the hell out of the wealthy.”