The Note: Bernie, Beto rack up big price tags on eve of debate
The run-up to the first 2020 presidential debates is getting expensive.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
The run-up to Wednesday's first presidential debate of the 2020 cycle is getting expensive.
Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to cancel all student loan debt in the United States. He'd cover the $1.6 trillion, 10-year cost with big, new taxes on Wall Street.
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke wants a vast remaking of the health care system available to veterans. He says he'd pay for it with a $200 billion in savings by ending current wars and wants a new "war tax" on non-military families that would run as high as $1,000 a year.
The "ideas primary" has been dominated early on by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who will headline the debate's first night. Her student loan plan would cost more than $1 trillion, but still be hundreds of billions less expensive than Sanders' pitch.
Numbers like these are easy to lampoon as unrealistic or even socialistic. But bold spending plans could shift the policy debate -- leaving more moderate Democrats defending relatively modest means to shared ends.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Seth Moulton might not be on the debate stage this week, but he is working hard to get his face on television and in front of crucial voters in early-voting states regardless.
Though he did not qualify for the first debates, the young military veteran from Massachusetts is releasing his first television ad of the cycle. His campaign told ABC News that the 30-second spot will play in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada "during or right before" the Democratic presidential debates.
"I'm Seth Moulton. I won't be on the debate stage tonight, so I'm introducing myself here," he says in the spot. A short biography continues with a focus on electability and his combat experience.
"I'm practical, and I can beat Donald Trump. We all know what a terrible person Donald Trump is, but what we need to talk about is what a terrible president he is," Moulton says. "At home, he's broken every promise. Our allies are more concerned than our enemies."
The TIP with Armando Garcia
It will be a mad dash to Miami on Wednesday and Thursday where 20 candidates are set to face off in the first presidential debates.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg took off Monday afternoon on a chartered flight for Florida, where he'll be among the 10 candidates to partake in the first night of debates.
Six senators running against each other may also be running into each other at the airport. With the Senate still in session -- and votes expected -- this week, some may be on the same flights from Washington to Miami.
A campaign aide tells ABC News that Sen. Cory Booker will be working until the last minute. As far as debate prep rituals go, they say the senator is doing push-ups, drinking LaCroix and eating popcorn.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. Tuesday morning's episode features ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, who lays out the feelings surrounding new sanctions on Iran: "I am no longer hearing from anybody high up in this administration about talk of a military counterstrike to what happened to our drone." Then former Department of Homeland Security acting Undersecretary and current ABC News contributor John Cohen explains why the administration was forced to move migrants out of a shelter over reports about unsanitary conditions. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
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