Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday blasted Hillary Clinton over her campaign’s recent criticism of his health care proposals.
“Hillary Clinton once said it ‘undermined core Democratic values’ and gives ‘aid and comfort’ to the special interests and ‘their allies in the Republican Party’ for Democrats to attack each other’s health care plans. Today, in another flip-flop, she’s doing exactly what she once decried,” a statement from Sanders’ campaign reads.
“Clinton’s attacks on a Democratic Party rival over universal health care marks a very public flip flop by her and her campaign. She is now using the same Karl Rove tactics she once decried in this video,” the statement continues, linking to a video of Clinton criticizing Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for attacking her proposal for universal health care during the 2008 campaign.
Over the past few days, Clinton’s campaign has been critical of Sanders’ proposal for universal health care. The former secretary of state suggested in November that Sanders’ plan would raise taxes on the middle class. And this week, she characterized his state-based plan as a “risky deal” that would turn “over your and my health insurance to governors.”
While campaigning for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton expanded on her mother’s characterization of Sanders’ plan. Chelsea Clinton warned voters against Sanders’ health care policy and argued that his state-based, single-payer plan would give too much power to governors, who could block the plan’s full implementation.
“Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance,” she said, according to NBC News. “I worry if we give Republicans democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era — before we had the Affordable Care Act — that would strip millions and millions and millions of people of their health insurance.”
”I don’t want to live in a country that has an unequal health care system again,” she continued, according to The Hill. “So I don’t want to empower Republican governors to take away Medicaid, to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans. And I think very much that’s what Sen. Sanders plan would do.”
Hillary Clinton then backed her daughter up in a Wednesday morning interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“You know, I adore my daughter and I know what she was saying,” Hillary Clinton said. “Because if you look at Senator Sanders’ proposals going back nine times in the Congress, that’s exactly what he’s proposed. To take everything we currently know as health care, Medicare, Medicaid, the CHIP Program, private insurance, now of the Affordable Care Act, and roll it together.”
Sanders hit back against both Clintons’ remarks on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
During an interview on CNN following the State of the Union address Tuesday night, Sanders said that Chelsea Clinton’s characterization of his program was wrong.
“Unfortunately, I have to say, as much as I admire Chelsea, she didn’t read the plan,” he said. “And where she is absolutely wrong — this is a plan that works in 50 states in this country, whether you have conservative Republicans or progressive Democrats. It’s a national program,”
Sanders elaborated on his defense in a Wednesday afternoon interview on MSNBC, calling Chelsea Clinton’s comments “factually incorrect.”
“The way the legislation we have introduced in the past was written — and obviously is what we believe in — is that if a Republican governor doesn’t want it, it will be implemented by the federal government,” Sanders said, adding that he hopes the Clinton campaign will stop using that line of attack.
In his statement released on Wednesday, Sanders’ campaign chalked up the Clinton campaign’s ramped up criticism of his health care proposals to fear that he is doing well in the polls.
“In the wake of new polls showing that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign is gaining ground or leading in the Iowa caucuses, Clinton’s campaign has stepped up attacks on Sanders and his health care proposal,” the statement reads.
