Until now, Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) have been stepping lightly around one another's diverging policy ideas. However, this week, Ms. Clinton unbridled harsh criticism of Sen. Sander's plan for a single-payer health system, saying he would raise taxes on the middle class to fund it, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ms. Clinton's campaign cited a 2013 version of Sen. Sander's health plan, saying it would levy a 9 percent tax increase on the middle class, a figure derived from combining a proposed payroll tax on employees and a large tax on employers.
"I don't see how you can be serious about raising working- and middle-class families 'incomes if you also want to slap new taxes on them — no matter what the taxes will pay for," Ms. Clinton said Tuesday at a campaign stop in Dallas, according to WSJ.
Sen. Sanders' campaign responded by claiming Ms. Clinton was intentionally misleading people to distract attention from her connections to Wall Street.
"In an attempt to divert the public's gaze from Wall Street coziness, the Clinton campaign has launched a false attack on universal healthcare," Spokesman Michael Briggs said, according to WSJ.
Sen. Sanders regularly discusses single-payer health systems, but he has not yet put forward a plan of his own to create one, and he may not, according to his senior strategist, Tad Devine, WSJ reported.