a lot of my colleagues were at their desks in washington when obamacare was passed. i weblt out and did town halls all over the state of month. missouri. and then even though he would get everybody to raise their hands if they re on medicare and if they like medicare, try to point out that was a single payer government simm, it didn t matter because the government was telling them what they could and couldn t do in one of the most personal things of their lives. and the notion that we could pull this switch is go from a primarily private health insurance through work and and here s the thing. i think what kamala s trying to do with her plan, she came out yesterday is very smart. split the needle. it is all choice. if you want to buy in to the government plan and if the government plan turns out to be so good then the market will decide, the government plan will rule. but having that choice and being able to campaign on that choice, rather than the government s going to decide w
to the voters who i think are probably persuadable on that. right? the case that there are some other people who don t like what you like i think has just limited traction in a democratic primary. to be fair, though, i think the case they were arguing tonight is you don t want to market test the idea of plucking 160 million cases of private insurance and saying we ve got a great solution, you ll love it, it s from washington. i think that s what more people were arguing. right no, they were. the cases that all the people in joplin, missouri and youngstown who are over 65 are already on government health care. and i thought that bernie s response to hickenlooper is an interesting one because it makes you think of what the government is capable of. lbj signs medicare and they phase it in overt course of about three years. that was an enormous undertaking. it was a truly enormous undertaking and if you go back and go through the historical record of what had to be put in place, how cm
transition. of expressing medicare for all universal healthcare. as a good thing. opposed to in part that s because they were on the defensive. by the delaney and ryan and others. but you have to defend your policy. and if they were down in the weeds. i just thought there was this debate was conducted about six inches below the top of the weeds. it was hard to see the waves of grain. tonight one manmade his bones and money. with mr. delaney. it seems like bernie was hitting ever industry there is and attacking them. health industry and prison industry. and fossil fuel. and you personally for being in the health industry.
vs. where general election voters are. there s interesting divides here. the question of medicare for all. without private insurance. that was a major part of the debate. democratic voters more than two to one support this. 64% support. 31% oppose. ask the same question to all americans. general election voters. who vote in november. very different story. 41% say good idea. a majority 54% say bad idea. how about this one. decriminalizing border crossing. that came up again tonight. democrats are split. how about all voters general election voters overwhelming opposition. 27% to 66%. another issue is national health insurance. should there be a program available to undocumented immigrants. among democrats two to one support. 60 to 32. among general election.
debate tonight. hey, joy. thank you, brian. i switched sets. i came over here to keep going. because why stop? we should just keep going. i m fine. don t go to sleep. thank you, brian. appreciate it. good evening. i m joy reid. tonight it was a fight for the ideological future of the democratic party in detroit. progressives elizabeth warren and bernie sandsers became the target of more moderate democrats running for the white house. as their rivals argued that some of the front-runners ideas would be too costly and too risky for the middle class. folks, we have a choice. we can go down the road that senator sanders and senator warren want to take us. which is with bad policies like medicare for all, free everything, and impossible promises that will turn off independent voters and get trump re-elected. i m not going to support any plan that rips away quality health care from individuals. this is an example of wish list economics. it used to be just republicans who wanted to