Schumer warns Democrats against ‘circular firing squad’ on health care

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday warned Democratic presidential candidates not to become so focused on the internal differences over health care that they lose sight of fighting against President Trump.  

In an interview with SiriusXM’s Joe Madison, Schumer cautioned against candidates turning into a “circular firing squad.”

“If we get all focused on the differences between, say Bernie [Sanders] and Cory [Booker] and Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] and [John] Hickenlooper, we’ll lose sight of the fact that it’s Donald Trump who’s now trying to reduce health care, destroy health care, get rid of it for everybody,” Schumer said.

“That’s a trap that we shouldn’t fall into. No circular firing squads,” he added.

{mosads}Schumer’s remarks come after a divisive Democratic debate on Wednesday night that saw a number of battles break out over health care between former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and other candidates. 

The battles over health care and other issues during the debate were brutal enough that Booker at one point said the White House was surely enjoying the spectacle. 

Democrats running for president are struggling with divisions over just how far to the left their health plans should go. Progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) support completely eliminating private insurance as part of a transition to single-payer “Medicare for All.”

More centrist Democrats like Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.) and Biden are pushing to strengthen ObamaCare and want to offer a government-run insurance option while letting people keep their private plans if they want to.

Biden, Bennet and other moderates argue the massive cost of Medicare for All would bankrupt the government.  

Battles over health care also dominated Tuesday night’s Democratic debate featuring Warren and Sanders, and on both nights there was only a passing acknowledgement of Trump and his continuing fight to overturn ObamaCare. 

Democrats ran on protecting ObamaCare in the 2018 midterm elections, and took control of the House. Senate Democrats are trying to hammer home the message that fighting Trump’s “sabotage” of ObamaCare should be the immediate focus.  

“The difference between the Democrats is a little, the difference between Democrats and Republicans is huge,” Schumer said. Democrats “are united in the broad sense in health care. Every one of us is for universal health care. … Different people have different ways to get there.”