EDITORIAL: Warren refuses to play it straight

Tuesday’s Democratic debate was a rather dull affair, and the ratings reflected that. The sheer size of the field continues to diminish each candidate’s ability to articulate comprehensive responses on the issues.

The candidates plowed little new ground, as most of them continued to expound on their intent to scrap the most successful economic system the world has ever known in favor of the unicorn known as benevolent socialism.

“The way you win an election in this time in history,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “is not the same old, same old.” That’s amusing coming from a man who takes his political inspiration from a discredited and dangerous philosophy that dates back 170 years.

Speaking of Russia, the candidates spent considerable time discussing the Russian threat and what to do about it. It seems so long ago that Barack Obama drew guffaws and backslaps from his media stenographers after arrogantly dismissing Republican Mitt Romney’s contention that Russia represented a problem for the United States. “The ’80s called,” Mr. Obama quipped in 2012, “they want their foreign policy back.” My, how times have changed.

Perhaps the most instructive exchanges Tuesday involved the new front-runner, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who repeatedly contorted herself to avoid admitting that the nationalization of health care will require large tax hikes on middle-class Americans.

“So I have made clear what my principles are here,” she said in response to a direct question about tax hikes and Medicare for All, “and that is costs will go up for the wealthy and big corporations, and for hardworking middle-class families costs will go down.” Sen. Warren then immediately pivoted to a soliloquy on selfies, democracy and the friends she’s made at town hall meetings.

The questioner followed up by noting that Sen. Sanders “acknowledges he’s going to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All. … Should you acknowledge it, too?” Another Warren floor dance ensued.

“So the way I see this,” she said, “it is about what kind of costs middle-class families are going to face. So let me be clear on this. Costs will go up for the wealthy. They will go up for big corporations. And for middle-class families, they will go down. I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle-class families.”

All this evasiveness was too much for even some of her Democratic cohorts.

“Well, we heard it tonight,” Pete Buttigieg noted. “A yes-or-no question that didn’t get a yes-or-no answer.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar was also taken aback by Sen. Warren’s lack of candor. “At least Bernie’s being honest here and saying how he’s going to pay for this and that taxes are going to go up,” she said. “And I’m sorry, Elizabeth, but you have not said that, and I think we owe it to the American people to tell them where we’re going to send the invoice.” Joe Biden jumped in to point out the fiscal reality that Sen. Warren prefers to gloss over. “On the single most important thing facing the American public,” the former vice president said, “I think it’s awfully important to be straightforward with them. The plan is going to cost at least $30 trillion over 10 years. That is more on a yearly basis than the entire federal budget.”

As Sen. Warren’s poll numbers rise among Democrats, she can expect additional scrutiny from her fellow hopefuls. But the fact that she prefers to sidestep acknowledging the actual costs of “free” health care and to deceive middle-class voters about their tax obligations under her socialized medicine scheme is revealing and hardly encouraging.