CHARLESTON, S.C. — Things got chippy again as the Democrat candidates for president debated again in South Carolina.
The South Carolina primary is this Saturday. Though he is second in the polls behind Joe Biden in the latest polling data in the state, it was Sen. Bernie Sanders who was the target of pretty much every candidate in the debate.
Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg again criticized Sanders Medicare for All health plan, specifically about how much it would cost to implement.
“I’ll tell you exactly what it adds up to,” Buttigieg said. “It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, and the inability to get the Senate into Democratic hands.”
Sanders insists the plan would lower healthcare costs for middle-class Americans. Buttigieg contends it may lower healthcare costs for the middle-class but it would concurrently raise their taxes by an astronomical amount. But, he said Medicare for All is not entirely a radical idea.
“What is a radical idea is eliminating all private insurance,” he continued. “Part of how you know it is is that no industrialized country has gone that far.”
Buttigieg and Sanders spoke over each other multiple times on the issue. Buttigieg again called both Sanders and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg the “two most polarizing figure” on the debate stage.
This was the last debate the candidates will take part in for a while. After the South Carolina primary this coming Saturday, the candidates will brace for Super Tuesday on March 3rd, in which several states will hold primary elections.
Bernie Sanders leads the overall delegate count with 47 delegates. Buttigieg is second with 25 delegates and Joe Biden third with 15.
