Presidential candidate Joe Biden says in an interview that if he becomes president, he would consider vetoing a Medicare for all healthcare plan if Sen. Bernie Sanders, his rival for the Democrats' presidential nomination, or another lawmaker manages to get it through Congress.
“I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of health care being available now,” Biden told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for an interview on "The Last Word." "If they got that through by some miracle, if some epiphany occurred, and some miracle occurred and said ‘OK, it’s passed’ then you got to look at the cost. I want to know how did they find $35 trillion?”
Sanders says, through his campaign website, that a package of new taxes and moves to raise revenues will pay for full Medicare at a cost of $17.5 trillion over 10 years. Other estimates, however, have said the plan will cost closer to $30 trillion.
Biden said the plan would significantly raise taxes on the middle class, even though he does agree that healthcare should "be a right" in the United States and Medicare should be available.
"My opposition relates to whether or not, a, it’s doable, and, two, what the cost is and what the consequences to the rest of the budget are," said Biden. "How are we going to find $35 trillion over the next 10 years without having profound impacts on everything from taxes for the middle class, working-class people, as well as the impact on the rest of the budget?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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