Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Greg Nash/Getty)
By Peter Sullivan, The Hill
en.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday hit back against an op-ed by
President Trump attacking Sanders’s signature "Medicare for all"
proposal, saying Trump’s piece is filled with “blatant lies.”“Bottom line is he's trying to frighten seniors and suggest that Medicare for all would cut back the benefits they have,” Sanders told reporters. “The truth is it would expand the benefits that they have.”
Sanders noted that under his proposal, the Medicare for all plan would cover areas that the current Medicare program does not, like dental care and eyeglasses.
He also noted that his proposal would do away with the premiums and cost-sharing that seniors currently have under Medicare.
Sanders, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, was responding to Trump’s op-ed in USA Today published earlier Wednesday.
“In practice, the Democratic Party’s so-called Medicare for All would really be Medicare for None,” Trump writes. “Under the Democrats' plan, today’s Medicare would be forced to die.”
That is an argument Republicans have been hammering in the midterm elections as they seek to blunt Democratic attacks on their ObamaCare repeal votes.
While Democratic proposals, far from calling for ending traditional Medicare, would actually expand it, Republicans argue that the added costs to the government would destabilize the system and end up hurting the program for current seniors.
“His op-ed should not surprise the American people in that it is full of lies,” Sanders said of Trump’s piece.
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