She's on a roll. "Squad" member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) compared the Boycotts, Disinvestments, and Sanctions movement to - I kid you not - the Boston Tea Party on Wednesday. The BDS movement encourages boycotts of Israeli goods and services. So yeah, not exactly the same as a patriotic protest against "taxation without representation." Just hours later she's given us another hot take. With all the debate over health care on the Democratic side, AOC has of course taken Sen. Bernie Sanders's side and endorsed Medicare for All. That plan would eliminate all private health insurance plans, but Ocasio-Cortez suggested that it's no big deal. Bloomberg reporter Sahil Kapur heard her say it.
.@AOC, asked about warnings from Joe Biden on Medicare for All, says nobody is “heartbroken” at the idea of losing private insurance.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 17, 2019
“People like their health care, they like their doctor,” she says. “But I’d be interested in what the public polling on Aetna would look like.”
What she was trying to say, Kapur offered, is that Americans can still expect quality health care with Medicare for All.
Put another way, the @BernieSanders @AOC argument is that switching from private insurance doesn’t equal losing your doctor or hospital because Medicare For All would allow everyone to see their provider of choice.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 17, 2019
The biggest proponent of Medicare for All, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), insists we can get it done. But his 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, threw cold water on his idea this week, telling an AARP forum that Medicare for All would be a disaster for the program and would be "the end" of Medicare as they knew it. The system just won't be able to handle 300 million more patients, he argued. Biden's plan to Protect and Build Obamacare would maintain the parts that worked, while allowing Americans to keep private insurance if they so desire, he said. Yet, the former vice president may have undermined his argument a bit by repeating President Obama's 2013 "Lie of the Year."
Sanders's staff accused Biden of "flat out lying" about the senator's policy.
We are heartbroken they're not getting along.
