Warren’s plan presents a stark contrast with policy preferences laid out by 2020 Democratic candidates who have staked out more pragmatic territory, like Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Appearing on a CNN town hall Monday night, Klobuchar took the rare step of rejecting several of the Democratic party’s more ambitious universal benefits proposals, including universal free four-year college tuition, and a Medicare-for-all type universal healthcare program.
“No. I am not for free four-year college for all,” Klobuchar said during the broadcast, catching many in the audience by surprise. “If I was a magic genie and could afford to give that to everyone, I would,” she added, before explaining several steps she would take to make college easier to afford.
Klobuchar, who announced her White House run last week, has not yet weighed in on Warren’s “ultra-millionaire’s tax,” but already, the former Minnesota federal prosecutor appears to favor a more practical approach to governing than some of her fellow 2020 Democrats.
Klobuchar did, however, sign on as a sponsor of the 2017 Child Care for Working Families Act, a bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, Wash., and Rep. Bobby Scott, Va. that also seeks to make child care affordable for every working family, but through different means than Warren’s bill.
Earlier this month, Klobuchar was one of only three Democratic presidential hopefuls in the Senate who voted in favor of a government spending bill that avoided a government shutdown and included more than a billion dollars in restricted funds that President Donald Trump plans to use to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also voted for the spending bill, while four other 2020 contenders in the upper chamber, Sens. Warren, Cory Booker, N.J., Kamala Harris, Calif., and Kirsten Gillibrand, N.Y. all opposed it.
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