Kamala Harris, Jill Biden back Obamacare, warn of 'brutal fight' during virtual event for Milwaukee
Bill Glauber
Despite polls that show Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump heading into the fall election, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California warned Democrats in Milwaukee Friday not to take "anything for granted."
"No matter how obvious it is to us on the merits that Joe Biden should win, it's going to be a brutal fight," Harris said during a virtual campaign event. "So let's all just put on our marching clothes and our ... shields ... and let's tell our stories."
Harris joined Biden's wife, Jill, during an event focused on the Affordable Care Act, the signature achievement under President Barack Obama and then-vice president Biden.
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Late Thursday, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ACA, know as Obamacare. The court is to hear oral arguments in the fall in a case brought by Texas and 17 other states to declare the law unconstitutional.
"Obviously, this administration is trying to take health care away from millions of Americans," said Harris, who is a contender to join Biden on the Democratic ticket. "That's it. It's actually not more complex than that."
Harris said that the country needs Biden and his leadership.
"We need what he so uniquely has, which is empathy for the American people and an understanding of what suffering is like," she said.
Harris said that Biden "is going to protect the Affordable Care Act, is going to expand it. He knows that healthcare is a right, not a privilege."
Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said healthcare premiums in Wisconsin "skyrocketed" because of Obamacare.
Kelly added that Biden's support for a public health insurance option "would pave the way for a government healthcare takeover that would kick 3.2 million Wisconsinites off of their private plans. Meanwhile, President Trump has lowered prescription drug costs and is expanding affordable options for all.”
Jill Biden said the "ability to take care of our health is the foundation of a good life. But these last few months have shown us that it's more than that, too. It's the foundation of our communities and our economy."
She said the Affordable Care Act "was a huge step forward, but it was always meant to be a starting point."
In a conversation led by state Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, the listeners heard how Obamacare helped the lives of Julie Buckholt, a retired educator who has a chronic autoimmune, neuromuscular disease, and Jennie Neary, whose son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Neary described her memory of election night 2016, when she was at Children's Hospital, where she said her son was receiving a third round of chemotherapy.
"I'm watching the coverage with the sound off," she said. "And I'm seeing Donald Trump, who ran on destroying the ACA get declared the winner."