Bernie Sanders ahead of his possible endorsement. Hillary Clinton, who headed the administration’s task force on reforming the system, delivered a 1,000-page plan that was dubbed “Hillary Care”, which required Americans and permanent resident aliens to enroll in a health plan. Clinton’s campaign has announced a stop in New Hampshire on Tuesday but did not say if Sanders would attend. The announcement does not mention Sanders.
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Sanders expressed his approval of Clinton’s policy proposition, stating, “Together these steps will get us closer to the day when everyone in this country has access to quality, affordable health care”.
The campaign also promised that as president, Clinton would double funding for primary care services at medical clinics that primarily serve low-income communities. “It is a significant step forward as we advance toward the goal of health care for for all Americans”.
In a conference call with reporters, Sanders congratulated Clinton on the plan and praised it as an “extremely important initiative”. That proposal is created to eliminate college tuition for working families and reduce debt.
When asked if he will formally end his campaign and endorse Clinton this week, Sanders acknowledged they are making progress. She hasn’t identified new revenue or spending cuts to cover the cost of the proposal, but she has said that she will remain true to her pledge to pay for the price of any proposals ― a pledge that she has largely kept in this campaign, independent budget analysts say. She accused him during a debate of wanting to “tear (the ACA) up and start over again”, a claim he rejected. This means extending the current mandatory funding under the Affordable Care Act and expanding it by $40 billion over the next 10 years. And she said she would support allowing people 55 and older to buy into Medicare, a program available to people 65 and older. The pseudo-Obamacare replacement plan that House Republicans recently put out was nothing more than a rehash of the same failed fake health care reform ideas that the party has been pushing for more than a decade.
“These are good investments for patients and these are very good investments for taxpayers”, he said.
The meeting of the Democratic National Convention full Platform Committee began slowly in an Orlando hotel ballroom on Friday, but Sanders’ supporters were pleased when they approved an amendment to the platform backing raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour “over time”, indexed to inflation.
The 187-member Platform Committee voted down an amendment by a Sanders supporter that would have blocked a vote in Congress on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed 12-nation trade pact that Sanders says will hurt US workers and the environment.
But the Sanders wing prevailed in getting a $15 minimum wage included in the platform after the draft version’s language said Americans “should” earn at least $15 an hour but made no commitment to action.
“If it were not for the Sanders campaign, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation”, said pro-Sanders delegate Cornel West, the civil rights activist and philosopher.
Sanders and Clinton have come out against the trade deal, but President Barack Obama supports it. Clinton supporters said they believed that toughening the trade language made enough of a statement without directly opposing the president.
Jealous pointed to Trump’s stance, saying Democrats face something “we have never seen before – which is a Republican opponent who intends to run clearly against the TPP”. “We will continue fighting to protect American jobs and to ensure Congress does not pass this disastrous trade agreement”.
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Sanders was also moving aggressively this weekend – with mixed results – to exert additional influence on the platform of the Democratic National Committee at a meeting in Orlando.
