Former Governor Rendell warns Dems: 'We are leaning left too far'

The colorful former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, penned an op-ed in The Hill warning his fellow Democrats that the party was leaning too far left.

For Democrats, one trend that has taken hold is quite alarming: our swing to the far left. That trend has been exemplified by almost all of our putative presidential candidates. The two clearest examples of trying to appeal to our base by being as progressive as possible were the rush to embrace a “single-payer” health care system after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) publicly endorsed it, and the stampede to call for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan really was not unexpected; he talked about single-payer during the 2016 campaign. But when he reiterated it, loudly and clearly, his words brought a rapid endorsements from almost all other Democrats who are hinting at presidential aspirations. If you’ve read one of my columns in The Hill, you know that I think single-payer could work under certain circumstances but I am troubled by its initial expense and taxes we would have to raise to make it work early on. In the few places it has been tried, such as Vermont, it was repealed because it was simply unworkable and unfundable.

If the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 - be it Sanders or no - promises to enact a single payer, "Medicare for all" health insurance plan, that candidate will be slaughtered. With a price tag of $3 trillion over 10 years, and the prospect of government interferring in our health care decisions, the American people would decisively reject the idea.

So yes, please Democrats, go for it.

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