2020 candidate Seth Moulton: 'I'm proud to say I'm a capitalist'
Socialism may be in vogue in some corners of the party, but at least one 2020 Democratic presidential candidate prefers capitalism.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told the Yahoo News “Skullduggery” podcast that he was proud of his more centrist stance on economic issues.
“If you look at my record on guns, for example, or climate change, I’m very progressive. I’m way out there,” Moulton said. “On the other hand, I’m proud to say I’m a capitalist. I believe in the American economic system. And I don’t think we’re a socialist country,” he added.
Earlier in the interview, Moulton pointed to health care as an area where he stands out from some of his Democratic rivals. Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said he had seen the the Department of Veterans Affairs’ single-payer health care firsthand and was wary of Medicare for All proposals that would wipe out private insurers.
“I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. The good: The VA actually negotiates drug prices. So they do a much better job than Medicare of keeping prescription prices low,” he said. “But I’ve also had surgery at the VA, where they’ve sent me home with the wrong medications. And we’ve all heard the stories of fellow veterans literally dying on VA waiting lists, or committing suicide in VA waiting rooms because they can’t see a mental health care professional.”
Moulton went on to call for a so-called public option to have a government-run health care system compete with private insurance companies.
“So as the only [candidate] who knows firsthand what single-payer health care is really all about, I actually think we should have some competition in the system,” Moulton said. “So I don’t support forcing everybody onto a government health care plan designed in 1963.”
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