Election 2020 News Update: Elizabeth Warren Releases Details Of Funding For Medicare-For-All Plan

Sen. Elizabeth Warren released details of her Medicare-for-all plan Friday, saying the $20.5 trillion in new spending would be funded through major tax increases on the wealthy and businesses, and immediately rant into criticism from former Vice President Joe Biden, who said her funding plans are suspect.

The details came as a Siena College/New York Times poll indicated she’s leading the field of Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses Feb. 3. Another poll, this one from ABC/Washington Post, indicated Americans are split 49% to 47% over whether President Trump should be impeached.

Warren, D-Mass., has been touting healthcare reform from the outset of her campaign and rival candidates have been pressing her on how she would pay for such a massive program. Rival candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation to create a single-payer national health insurance plan and would pay for it through a variety of taxes including increases in progressive tax rates for those earning at least $250,000.

Like Sanders’ proposal, Warren’s plan also would eliminate employer-sponsored health insurance and replace it with a government plan that would add $20.5 trillion in new spending over a decade that eliminates premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for individuals. She’s proposing a tax on financial transactions like stock trades and would cut $800 billion in military spending. She said the plan does not raise taxes on the middle class, but her estimates rely heavily on a set of assumptions about lower national healthcare costs.

Biden, who supports adding a public option but would retain the current system of private health insurance, criticized what he called “mathematical gymnastics” used to hide “the simple truth from voters: It’s impossible to pay for Medical-for-all without middle class tax increases.”

“To accomplish this sleight of hand, her proposal dramatically understates its cost, overstates its savings, inflates the revenue and pretends that an employer payroll tax increase is something else,” Biden said in a statement emailed to IBTimes.

The Siena College poll of likely Democratic caucus goers gives Warren a 3-point lead over Sanders, 22% to 19%, in Iowa and drops Biden to fourth place at 17%, behind South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who polled 18%. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kamala Harris of California and businessman Andrew Yang round out the field, all with single digit support.

Biden entered the race at the top of the polls. But an average of Iowa polls by Real Clear Politics gives Warren a 5-point lead with Buttigieg second.

The ABC/Post poll indicated Americans are sharply divided over whether Trump should be impeached and removed from office and comes one day after the House approved rules to govern the public phase of its impeachment inquiry. Eighty-two percent of Democrats support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. Among Republicans, only 18% would take such action while among independents, support for impeachment and removal is 47%.

Trump again tweeted out his contempt for the impeachment process, calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, both D-Calif, corrupt and warning the “public is watching … how unfair this process is.”

Trump Thursday said he was changing his official residence from New York to Florida where he and his family will take up residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort.