{"id":924319,"date":"2021-10-26T11:58:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T15:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=924319"},"modified":"2021-10-26T11:58:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T15:58:47","slug":"democrats-at-odds-over-medicare-expansions-drug-pricing-as-they-race-for-a-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-at-odds-over-medicare-expansions-drug-pricing-as-they-race-for-a-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats At Odds Over Medicare Expansions, Drug Pricing As They Race For A Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-at-odds-over-medicare-expansions-drug-pricing-as-they-race-for-a-deal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=924319&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Proposed Medicare expansions and drug pricing reforms in Democrats\u2019 spending package are the latest provision at risk of being cut, highlighting the rift between the party\u2019s left and moderate wings as they race to reach a deal.<\/p>\n<p>Medicare expansions to cover vision, hearing and dental were <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/21\/schumer-medicare-expansions-bidens-infrastructure-families-plans\/\">endorsed<\/a> by Senate Majority Chuck Schumer in June, and have been championed by Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders during marathon negotiations. The Senate\u2019s 50-50 split, however, gives Democratic leadership no room for error, and makes opposition from centrist senators to the budget\u2019s size and scope impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders now finds himself at odds with Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia who is on-record opposing expanding the government health care program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy big concern right now is the 2026 deadline that we have insolvency,\u201d Manchin said Monday. \u201cMedicare and social security is a lifeline to most people in West Virginia and around the country, and you\u2019ve got to stabilize that first before you look at, basically, expansion. So if we\u2019re not being fiscally responsible, that\u2019s really concerning.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/25\/manchin-budget-framework-should-be-possible-this-week-disagreements-remain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Manchin: Budget Framework \u2018Really Should Be\u2019 Finished Soon)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Manchin\u2019s vote is critical to passing the budget over Republican opposition, but Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee and the only senator in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has vowed for months that the expansions would be included.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBottom line is that \u2026 a serious reconciliation bill must include expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids and vision,\u201d Sanders <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/burgessev\/status\/1453007104474763272\">told reporters<\/a> Tuesday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7309166\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"33\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7309166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Joe Manchin is one of the centrist senators opposed to much of his own party\u2019s budget. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sanders and left-wing Democrats aligned with him now face a difficult decision: hold firm and refuse to accept a bill that omits the expansions, or accept a compromise that likely omits dental coverage given its high price tag.<\/p>\n<p>Medicare expansions are not the only provisions that Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist Democrat from Arizona, has objected to. Sinema <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/20\/democrats-forced-scrap-tax-increases-budget-due-to-kyrsten-sinema-opposition-joe-manchin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opposes raising taxes<\/a> on corporations and wealthy Americans, forcing Democrats to scramble to find alternative ways to fund the package, and is largely opposed to allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, another non-negotiable from those to her left. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/01\/lower-drug-costs-democrats-battle-big-pharma-fellow-members-chuck-schumer-medicare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Dems Prepare To Battle Big Pharma \u2013 And Some Of Their Own \u2013 In Bid To Lower Drug Prices)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny reconciliation bill must include serious negotiations of Medicare and the pharmaceutical industry to lower the cost of prescription drugs,\u201d Sanders said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>But his demands may do little to sway centrists like Sinema and Manchin, who also <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/18\/manchin-demands-democrats-climate-change-child-tax-credit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">objected<\/a> to much of the budget\u2019s climate change provisions and child tax credit extensions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always said that government should be your best partner,\u201d Manchin said Monday. \u201cBut it shouldn\u2019t be your provider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proposed Medicare expansions and drug pricing reforms in Democrats\u2019 spending package are the latest provision at risk of being cut, highlighting the rift between the party\u2019s left and moderate wings &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-924319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}