The Myths of Means-Testing Are Still Alive Among Democrats
At last night’s debate in Miami, several Democratic candidates continued to peddle misinformation about both free college and Medicare for All.

South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg and former vice president Joe Biden talk during the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Last night’s forum in Miami, the second of two debates this week, was arguably even more chaotic than the first. As the ten candidates dashed through everything from healthcare and foreign policy to the environment and civil rights at dizzying speeds, many viewers probably found it more than a little difficult to parse the rhetoric.
Nonetheless, amid the foray of the debate’s overcrowded stage — which featured everything from Joe Biden waffling about his past associations with segregationists to Marianne Williamson soliloquizing about the moon — a few concrete ideological differences made themselves visible.
Among other things, on the key issues of free college and Medicare for All — both notably championed by Bernie Sanders since his 2016 presidential run and sure to be significant in 2020 — many Democrats continue to be deliberately imprecise. Worse still, despite a generalized rhetorical shift throughout the party, some candidates continue to trade in the same rank inaccuracies when it comes to universal programs that corporate centrists have peddled for decades.