Hickenlooper. Bernie sanders, california congressman, eric swalwell. Author Marianne Williamson and former tech executive, andrew yang. From nbc news, decision 2020, the Democratic Candidates debate. Live from the Performing Arts Center in miami, florida. Good evening and welcome. Our spirited audience here tonight and across america tonight. We continue this spirited debate about the future of the country and how to tackle the most pressing problems and getting to the heart of the biggest issues in this primary. We will talk about health care and immigration and dive into the economy and Climate Change as well. Before we begin, it may sound familiar. 20 candidates qualified for the first debate. We heard from 10 last night and we will hear from 10 more tonight. The break down was selected at random. The candidates will have 60 secondings and 30 for followups. Not every person will weigh in on every topic, but we will hear from everyone. We love our audience, but keep your reaction to a minimum and we wont hold back with having our candidates stick to the time. We will start today with senator sanders. Good evening to you. You have called for big new government benefits Like University health care and free college. In a recent interview you suspected that americans would be delighted to pay more taxes for things like that. My question to you is, will taxes go up for the middle class in a Sanders Administration and if so, how do you sell that to voters . You are quite right. We have a new vision for america. At a time when we have three people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of america while 500,000 people are sleeping out on the streets today, we think it is time for change. Real change. By that, i mean that health care in my view is a human right. We have got to passe medicare for all single payer system. Under that system, by the way, the vast majority of the people in this country will be paying significantly less for health care than they are right now. I believe that education is the future for this country and we must make public colleges and universities tuitionfree and eliminate student debt and we do that by placing a tax on wall street. Every proposal that i have brought forth is fully paid for. I will give you 10 seconds to answer the very direct question. Will you raise taxes for the middle class in a Sanders Administration . People who have health care under medicare for all will have no premiums or deductibles and no copayments or out of pocket. They will pay more in taxes, but less in health care for what they get. Senator bennet, we will get to everybody. Senator biden, i promise everyone will get in here. Vice president biden. Senator sanders has been calling for a revolution. Recently in remarks to a group of wealthy donors as you spoke about the problem of income inequality, you said you shouldnt demonize the rich. Nobody has to be punished and no ones standard of living would change. What did you mean by that . Donald trump thinks wall street built america. Ordinary americans built americans. My dad said a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. Its about dignity and respect and looking your kid in the eye and saying everything will be okay. Too many people in the middle class have had the bottom fallout. I am saying we have to be straight forward. We have to make sure we understand that the return of dignity to the middle class, they need insurance that is cover and they can afford that. We have a situation where there is continuing education and they are able to pay for it and make sure they can breathe air that is clean and they have water they can drink. Look, donald trump put us in a horrible situation. We have enormous income inequality. We can make massive cuts in the 1. 6 trillion in tax loopholes and i would be going about eliminating Donald Trumps tax cuts for the wealthy. Vice president biden, thank you. [ applause ] senator harris, there is a lot of talk in this primary about new government benefits such as student loan cancellation, health care and more. Do democrats have a responsibility to explain how they will pay for every proposal they will make along those lines . Let me tell you something. Where was that question when the republicans and donald trump passed a tax bill that benefits the top 1 and the biggest wealth raisers in this country contributing a 1 trillion to the debt of america, which middle class families will pay for one way or another. Working families need support and need to be lifted up and frankly this economy is not working for working people. The rules have been written for the favorite of the people who have the most and not in favor of the people who work the most. Thats why i am propoedsing that we change the tax code. For every family making less than 100,000 a year, they collect up to 500 a month which will make all the difference for the families to get through the end of the month. I will repeal the tax code that benefits the top 1 and large corporations. You said democrats will booed if they embrace socialism. Only one candidate on this stage identifies as a democratic socialist. What are the policies that you think are veering towards socialism. I think the bottom line is if we dont define we are not socialists, the republicans will come every way they can and call us socialists and if you look at the Green New Deal which i admire the sense of urgency and how important it is to do Climate Change, im a scientist, but we cant promise every american a government job. I believe health care is a right and not a privilege, but you cant expect to eliminate private experience for 180 Million People, many of whom dont want to give it up. We brought businesses and nonprofits and we got nearly universal health care coverage. We were the first state in america to bring the oil and gas industry to aggressively address methane emissions and the first place to expand reproductive rights. We have done the big progressive things people said couldnt be done. I have done what pretty much everyone else up here is still talking about doing. Senator sanders, i will give you a chance to weigh in. What is your response to say nominating a socialist would reelect donald trump . I think the response that the polls had us 10 points ahead of donald trump because the American People understand that trump is a phony, that trump is a pathological liar and a racist and that he lied to the American People during his campaign. He said he was going to stand up for working families. Well, President Trump, you are not standing up for working families when you try to throw 32 Million People off their health care that they have and that 83 of your tax benefits go to the top 1 . Thats how we beat trump. We expose him for the fraud that he is. Senator, you have 30 seconds. I agree with both per perspectives. The debate is confusing. The truth is there is a big difference between capitalism on one hand and greed on the other. All the things we are trying to change is when Companies Care more about profits than they do about people. If you are talking about ending gun violence, its the greed of the nra and the gun manufacturers that make any progress impossible. Its the greed of the Insurance Companies and the Drug Companies when we want to try to get health care as a right and not a privilege. There need not be disagreement in the party. We want healthy capitalism and not corrupted capitalism. Senator bennet, you said its possible to write policies that have no basis in reality, you might as well call them candy. Were you referring to any candidate or proposal. Was that directed to me . That sounded like me. It was you. I appreciate it. First of all, i agree completely with bernie about the fundamental challenge we face as a country. 40 years of no Economic Growth for 90 of the American People and 160,000 families in the top. 1 have the same wealth as the bottom 90 and the worst income inequality. Where i disagree is the solution of medicare for all. I proposed universal health care and it is a right. Health care is a right. We need to get to universal health care and i believe the way to do that is by finishing the work we started with obamacare and creating a public option that every family and person in america can make a choice for their family about whether they want a public option which for them is like having medicare for all or keep their private insurance. I believe we will get there much more quickly if we do that. If i can finish, bernie mentioned that the taxes we would have to pay and because of those taxes, vermont rejected medicare for all. Senator, we are going talk about health care at length, but for the moment, my colleagues want to continue the questioning. I wrote a part in senator sand sanders bill that merges what the two said. If you have a buy in over a four or fiveyear period, you move us to single payer more quickly. Senator, we will get to this. Before we do, i want to say hello and good evening to mayor buttigieg. [speaking foreign language]. [speaking foreign language]. Many of your colleagues support free college. Why not . College affordability is personal for us. We have six figure student debt. Its logical that if you can refinance your house, you should be able to refinance your student debt. Cost could be a barrier. I just dont believe it makes sense to ask working class families to subsidize the children of billionaires. The children of the wealthiest americans can pay a little bit of tuition and while i want tuition costs to go down, i dont think we can buy down every last penny for them. Something else doesnt get talked about in the college affordability. Yes, it needs to be more affordable to go to college and needs to be more affordable to not go to college. You should be able to live well, afford rent, be generous to your church and Little League whether you went to college or not. Thats one reason we need to raise the minimum wage to at least 15 an hour. You cant count on people in government around when it was created. Its the 40 million of us who cant start a family and start a business and cant buy our first home. This is the generation that will be able to solve student loan debt. This generation is ready to lead. Your signature policy is to give every adult in the United States 1,000 a month, no questions asked. Thats right. Thats like 3. 2 trillion a year. How would you do that . Sorry . How would you do that . Its difficult if you have Companies Like amazon paying literally in taxes. We need to put the American People in a position to benefit from the parts of the economy. If we had a value added tax in half of the european level, it would generate new revenue which combined with the money, its the trickle up community. We would spend the money it would create millions of jobs and make our families stronger and healthier and save monoincarceration and homelessness, services and adjusted gains from having a stronger and healthier population that would increase gdp by 700 million. We have to make this as technology is automating away millions of jobs and enter donald trump is our president today. We automated jobs from michigan, ohio and pennsylvania and wisconsin. We are about to do the same thing to many other jobs through the economy. To understand better, you are saying 1,000 a month for everyone over 18 so a value added tax to spend that 1,000 on value added tax . The value added tax would end up you would still increase the buying power of the 94 of americans, but you would have 12,000 a year per vchltd with two or three adults, it would be 24 to 36,000 a year. What mr. Yang is talking about, Many Americans are worried about self driving cars and robots and Artificial Intelligence will cost jobs. What would you do to adapt to this new world . We must always be a country where Technology Creates more jobs than it displaces. I have seen the anxiety across america where the manufacturing floors go from 1,000 to 100 to 1. We have to modernize our schools and value the teacher who is prepare our kids and wipe the student debt from any community that needs it and invest in communities in places are the best exports to get skills. Jose, i was 6 years old when a president ial candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said its time to pass the torch to a new generation of americans. That candidate was then senator joe biden. Joe biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of americans 32 years ago. Hes still right today. If we are going to solve the issues of automation, pass the torch. If we are going to solve climate chaos, pass the torch. If we are going to solve student loan debt, pass the torch. If we are going to solve school violence, class the torch. Would you like to sing a torch song . I would. Im Still Holding on to that torch. We have to make sure everybody is prepared better for an education. The fact is thats why i proposed us focusing on schools in distress. Thats why i think we should triple the amount of money we spent and have universal prek and every person who graduates from high school, 65 out of 100 need something beyond high school and we should provide for them to get that education. There should be Free Community college, cutting in half the cost of college. We should be in a position where no one has to pay back a student debt when they get out and making less than 25,000 a year. Debt is frozen and no interest until they get beyond that. We cant put people in a position where they are not able to move on. Folks, there is a lot we can do, but we have to make continuing education available for everyone so that everyone can compete in the 21st century. We are not doing that now. As the youngest guy on the stage, i ought to contribute. Im all for this. Before we move on before we move on from education. Please, please. Its generational. The issue is who has the guts to take on wall street, to take on the fossil fuel industry, to take on the big money interest who have unbelievable influence over the economic and political life of this country. Senator harris, im so sorry. We will allow all of to you speak. Senator harris. We will let you all speak. We cant afford to wait. America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we are going to put food on their table. So on that point, part of the issue that is at play in America Today and we have all been traveling around the country, i certainly have. I meet people who are working two and three jobs. This president is talking about his great economy. My great economy. How are you measuring this greatness of this economy of yours and he talks about the stock market. Thats fine if you own stocks. So many families in america do not. You ask him how are you measuring the greatness of this economy and they point to the job numbers and unemployment numbers. People are working, they are working two and three jobs. Lets be clear. No one should have to work more than one job to have a roof over their head and food on their table. [ applause ] we have all expressed interest in health care. Lets talk about health care and this will be a show of hands question. We asked about Health Care Last Night and it spurred a lot of discussion, as you know. We will do it again now. Many people watching at home have Health Insurance through their employer. Who would abolish private Health Insurance in favor of a governmentrun plan . Senator gillibrand. Now its my turn. This is a very important issue. The plan that senator sanders and i support medicare for all is how you get to single player. It has a buy in period. In 2005 when i ran for congress in a 21 republican district, i actually ran on medicare for all and i won that 21 district twice. The way i formulated it was simple. Anyone who doesnt have access to insurance they like, they can buy in a percentage of income. Thats what they put into the transition for our medicare for all plan. I believe we need to get to universal health care as a right and not a privilege. The quickest way you get there is you create competition with the insurers. Got bless them if they want to compete, they can try, but they never put people over profits and i doubt they ever will. What will happen is People Choose medicare and you will transition and we will get to medicare for all and your step is so short, i would make it an earned benefit just like Social Security so that you buy in your whole live and its always there for you. Its permanent and universal. I want to put the same question to mayor buttigieg. Look, everybody who says medicare for all, every person in politic who is allows that phrase to escape their lips has a responsibility to explain how you are actually supposed to get from here to there. Heres how i would do it. Its very similar. I would call it medicare for all who want it. You take medicare or a flavor and make it available on the exchanges. People can buy in. If People Like Us are right that its more inclusive and efficient than the corporate answers, it will be a natural path to the single payer environment. Even in countries that have outright socialized medicine, even in england there is a private sector. For our primary care, we cant rely on the tender mercies. This is very personal for me. I started out this year dealing with a terminal illness of my father. I make decisions for a living and nothing could have prepared me for this. The thing we had going for us is we never made that decisions based on whether it would bankrupt our family because of medicare. I want every family to have the freedom to do what is medically right. Vice president biden. You were one of the ark tekts of obamacare. Where do we go from here . This is very persona