Democrats continue to line up behind Bernie Sanders’ health care bill - NEWS TODAY
Channel: NEWS TODAY
Date: 2017-09-13

Democrats continue to line up behind Bernie Sanders’ health care bill - NEWS TODAY
A growing number of Democratic senators -– including several party power-players -- will stand with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday as co-sponsors to his latest bill for a government run, single-payer health care system. The rising support among Democrats for Sanders’ sweeping proposal, which would entail a massive overhaul of a major part of the U.S. economy, marks a clear sea change to the left in party.

“The growing momentum for Medicare-for-all is a remarkable turnaround for an idea that was deemed too radical to even debate eight years ago. However, it’s really a testament to the political clarity of the policy and the steadfast work Senator Sanders has put into organizing support for it inside and outside the halls of power,” Charles Chamberlain, a progressive activist and executive director of Democracy for America, wrote in a statement Tuesday.

As of Wednesday morning, 15 Democratic senators had signed on to the bill, including several more moderate members of caucus and a number considered to be possible 2020 presidential contenders. A similar bill introduced in the House by Representative John Conyers, D-Mich., has 117 cosponsors.

Sanders spokesperson Josh Miller-Lewis told ABC News, “Clearly Democrats are seeing that the vast majority of their constituents and increasingly the majority of the American people support single-payer.”