Critics Denounce Biden's Use of Tragic Family Story to Attack Medicare for All as Both 'Manipulative' and 'Cynical'
A new ad by former Vice President Joe Biden released Tuesday that uses his personal story of familial loss as an attack line against Medicare for All is being panned by critics as a cynical ploy that obfuscates the similar kind of pain that millions of people could endure under a Biden plan that would leave them un- or under-insured.
Characterizing the commercial—in which Biden recounts losing his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident and his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015—as “so manipulative” towards potential voters, writer Natalie Shure said on Twitter that the former vice president was using his life story to swipe at the Medicare for All proposal supported by his top Democratic primary rivals.
“Single payer would equitably support *all* families through their darkest moments,” tweeted Shure. “Obamacare doesn’t; nor would Biden’s plan.”
Journalist Chris Person was even harsher on Biden.
“This is easily the cruelest, dirtiest, and most manipulative thing Joe Biden has done so far,” said Person, “dangling his son’s cancer against the fight for Medicare For All.”
Media critic Adam Johnson, in a tweet, called Biden’s use of his family tragedy “extremely cynical.”
“Again he’s equating those pushing Medicare for All with GOP trying to undermine Obamacare by misleading what it means to ‘tear it down’ BUT this time the added bonus of using images of his dead children!” added Johnson.
The ad wasn’t the first time Biden has used his family tragedy to sell his healthcare plan. According to a post on Naked Capitalism, Biden leaned on his personal story during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on August 23, where the former vice president said “passing the ACA was a ‘huge step forward’ at the time, it extended insurance to 20 million.”
Biden’s plan would allow people to buy into Medicare, making the government-run system a public option part of the market.
“What’s your response to those who wouldn’t be better off under your plan?”
—Walker Bragman, journalist
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