("CBS This
Morning")
By Cathy Burke
| Monday, 04 February 2019 04:39 PM
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.,
on Monday would not put a price tag on a Medicare-for-all program he and other
progressive Democrats are supporting.
In an interview on "CBS This Morning," hosts Norah
O'Donnell, a former chief White House correspondent for CBS News, and John
Dickerson, the former host for CBS News' "Face the
Nation," repeatedly pressed the latest announced 2020 Democratic
candidate for the White House on a dollar-and-cents figure for the single-payer
plan.
The remarks start at the
2:50-minute mark.
When Dickerson mentioned it
would be difficult for Democrats to pass such a proposal, even with a Senate
majority, because it would likely require Republican votes to clear the
filibuster threshold, Booker asserted: "This is where I disagree.”
"I've gone across this
country, sat with Republican farmers, with Independents," he said.
"Everybody agrees that [in] the United States of America, we should never
have somebody who does not get access to care because they can't afford it.
This idea that healthcare is a right is popular on both sides of the
aisle."
O'Donnell asked why not
strengthen Obamacare instead, Booker said there were pathways that would expand
access while lowering costs.
"A chicken in every
pot is popular as well. How much would 'Medicare for all' cost?" O'Donnell
asked.
"Norah, a couple
things," Booker said.
"Just quickly, just so
that people know how much it would cost," O'Donnell pressed.
"Even the CBO says if
you lower Medicare to allow 50-year-olds to get into it, you can not only save
the government money, but you can lower premiums for all Americans,"
Booker replied. "This is the thing. We're not talking directly to issues
that can expand access to care and create affordability, and to say that it
can't be done in Washington . . ."
"I'm just wondering if
Democrats are having an honest conversation, while they are promising what
sounds good, and it should be a universal right that people have access to
healthcare," O'Donnell interjected. "But if it's $20 billion and $30
billion over 10 years, no one is having that discussion about how that will be
paid for."
Booker said he was having
that discussion, but went into his fight against mass incarceration — and never
gave a dollar amount for the Medicare-for-all idea.
A university-based libertarian think tank,
however, has projected
a single payer plan to cost $32 trillion — not billions, the Washington Free Beacon noted.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/cory-booker-democrats-medicare-for-all-single-payer/2019/02/04/id/901205/
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/cory-booker-democrats-medicare-for-all-single-payer/2019/02/04/id/901205/
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