Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pushed out new proposals Thursday to expand Medicare and forgive student debt — in a less-than-subtle appeal to the left-wing fans of vanquished rival Bernie Sanders.
Sanders, the Vermont senator, suspended his presidential campaign on Wednesday after fighting Biden on policies that Sanders vowed to enact as a democratic socialist, including free college and single-payer health insurance.
Biden, who opposes mandatory government-provided health insurance, said in a Medium post he supports lowering Medicare eligibility to people who are 60 years old, down from the current 65 year eligibility age.
For student loan debt, Biden proposes wiping away debt for most people who attended public colleges or historically black private universities.
“I propose to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000, with appropriate phase-outs to avoid a cliff,” Biden wrote.
The policies are a far cry from Sanders’s vision for a political revolution, but aim to reduce the number of disillusioned Sanders supporters who drift to President Trump, third-party candidates or stay home in November.
Trump made an overt play for Sanders supporters, saying this week at a White House press conference that he and Sanders agree on reforming trade deals to benefit American workers.
“I hope that a lot of Bernie Sanders’s people, just like they did last time — we got a tremendous percentage of Bernie people,” Trump said Wednesday. “And I think they voted for me largely because of trade, because Bernie and I agree on trade. We agree that the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country they do business with. The difference is I’ve done a lot about it.”
Trump’s federal budget proposals also have called for student loan forgiveness, but with a conservative twist: student loans would be forgiven after 15 years, with maximum annual payments of 12.5 percent of a person’s income.