Subject: Sanders Risky Riff
From: Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>
To: Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, Oren Shur <[email-masked]>, Navin Nayak <[email-masked]>, Heather Stone <[email-masked]>, Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2016 21:38:24 -0500

Democrats have a real choice in this caucus/primary.  And that’s a good
thing.  Now, Senator Sanders and I share a lot of the same values and
goals.  We both want to make the economy work for everyone, not just those
at the top.  The differences between us pale compared to what we see on the
other side.

But we *do* have differences.  I’m a progressive who likes to get things
done.  And I measure every policy by whether it’s going to actually make
life better for working families.  And I’m concerned that some of the ideas
that Senator Sanders has proposed run the risk of hurting rather than
helping.

On health care, I would defend the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans
tried to repeal again last week, and I’d improve it by bringing down
out-of-pocket costs for families and taking on skyrocketing prescription
drug costs.  Senator Sanders wants to start a whole new system.  I respect
what he’s trying to do, but it worries me that he’s putting all the
progress we’ve made under President Obama at risk, and starting a new
divisive national debate on health care when we’ve just been through that.
He would end the Affordable Care Act and take Medicare, Medicaid, the
Children’s Health Insurance Program, and every private insurance plan in
America and turn it all over to the states, including to Republican
governors like Terry Brandstad/Paul LePage.  That’s a risk we just
shouldn’t take.

And his health care plan is part of a broader program that would add 18 to
20 trillion dollars in new federal spending, but he hasn’t told us how he’d
pay for it.  There’s a big risk in this too, which is that hard-pressed
working families are going to be left holding the bag.  Because when you’re
talking about that much new spending, it’s hard to make the arithmetic add
up any other way.  This is another difference between us.  I’ve laid out
how I’m going to pay for everything I’m proposing in this campaign by
making the wealthy pay their fair share.  I believe we need to raise middle
class wages, not middle class taxes.  Not when incomes for most families
have barely budged in years.

Values and goals are important.  But so is getting the job done and
actually making a difference for families.  That’s what I’ve done as First
Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State.  And it’s what I’ll do as President.