Democrat 2020 Candidate John Delaney Rips ‘Medicare for All,’ ‘Green New Deal’

Former U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-MD), who is running for president in 2020, criticized his Democratic rivals for embracing left-wing policies like “Medicare for All” and the “Green New Deal” Tuesday, calling them “unrealistic.”

Delaney was appearing on the conservative radio show hosted by Hugh Hewitt. Politico reported:

“I’m just going to point out: Their policies are bad policies,” Delaney, who until earlier this year represented Western Maryland in Congress, said. “Medicare for All — in terms of the bill that’s been introduced in the Senate — is fundamentally bad health care policy. Putting aside we have no way of paying for it, even if we were able to pay for it, it still would be bad policy.”

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The former congressman did not mince words on another ambitious proposal that has divided Democrats: the Green New Deal, which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030 and attempts to anticipate the shock wave such a drastic transition would send through the economy.

A few other Democratic candidates have also been skeptical of Democrats’ “Medicare for All” plan, notably Sens. Amy Kloubuchar (D-MN) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), though Kloubuchar is a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal legislation in the Senate.

The Democratic field is running to the left, and has lacked for moderate candidates and policies. This week, Sen. Cory Booker proposed gun control measures that National Review called “the most extreme package of gun-control proposals to be touted by any presidential aspirant in two decades.”

Delaney might not qualify as a “moderate” himself, despite his skepticism toward his rivals’ left-wing policies. Like other Democratic candidates, Delaney himself has courted the support of racist and antisemite Al Sharpton.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.