Former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid tossed a wet blanket on Medicare for All ahead of the final debate on Wednesday night before the state’s caucuses take place on Saturday.
Reid, who was the Democratic leader in the Senate, claimed the government-funded healthcare plan touted by Sen. Bernie Sanders would never pass Congress. He told ABC News’s Powerhouse podcast that he thinks “the world of Bernie Sanders” but that he believes Medicare for All is “impractical.”
“I’m against it,” Reid explained. “There’s not a chance in hell it would pass.”
That same criticism has been used by Sanders’s competitor, Amy Klobuchar, who often notes that the current Medicare for All proposal in the Senate could not even get co-sponsored support from half of the Democratic senators, let alone support from Republicans. Reid noted that he would support an expansion of Obamacare that could include a public option at some point.
Reid jabbed Sanders’s healthcare plan but refused to give his endorsement to any of the candidates ahead of Nevada’s caucuses on Saturday. He explained that he plans to “stay out of it,” adding, “I want the caucus to go unhindered by anything that I’m doing wrong.”
He also promised that Nevada’s caucuses would go off without a hitch, unlike the problems that took place in Iowa. Reid explained, “We have the best state party organization in the country — no question about that. We aren’t using any of [Iowa’s] software. We’re using nothing that they had, and we feel very comfortable that we’re going to have a good, respectable vote.”
