The day after his last opponent dropped out of the presidential race, Joe Biden took the rarest of turns for a Democratic nominee: to the left.
Biden shed any pretense about his need to win over Bernie Sanders voters when he announced a pair of proposals Thursday aimed at assuaging wary progressives: lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 years old, and forgiving all student debt for low- and middle-income people who attended public colleges and universities, as well as those who attended private Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other institutions that serve minority students.
“It's Day 1. We expect to see more. He's got a long way to go,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for progressive group Justice Democrats and a former Sanders staffer. On Wednesday, Shahid’s group was part of a coalition of progressive outfits that issued a list of far-reaching demands they want Biden to adopt.
“This race is not going to be won based on what a disgruntled Brooklyn coffeehouse denizen is thinking. It’s going to be won on turnout in cities and suburbs in places like Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit,” Kessler said. “It’s time for Sanders to say to his supporters, ‘I’m with Joe. It’s time to go whole hog for him.’”
The cost of the policies Biden proposed is unclear, but likely big. The chances that a politically divided Congress would pass the legislation are slim.
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