John Delaney in Democratic candidates debate in Detroit Michigan, July 30-31, 2019

On Corporations: Investors should pay as much tax as workers

DELANEY: I think wealthy Americans have to pay more. Listen, I grew up in a blue-collar family. Became a successful entrepreneur. And I've done well financially. I think I should pay more in tax. I think wealthy Americans should pay more in tax. But we have to have a real solution: raise the capital gains rates. There is no reason why people who invest for a living should pay less than people who work for a living. That's ridiculous. It's the biggest loophole in our tax code. That's how we get more revenues from wealthy individuals: we roll back the Trump tax cuts to wealthy individuals. I think the wealth tax will be fought in court forever. It's arguably unconstitutional. And the countries that have had it have largely abandoned it because it's impossible to implement.

On Energy & Oil: Keep climate change separate from other issues

DELANEY: It ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate, like universal health care, guaranteed government jobs, and universal basic income. That only makes it harder to do. My plan will put a price on carbon, take all the money, give it back to the American people in a dividend. I'm going to increase the Department of Energy research budget by fivefold, because we have to innovate our way out of this problem. I'm going to create a market for direct air capture, which are machines that actually take carbon out of the atmosphere, because I don't think we'll get to net zero by 2050 unless we have those things.

On Free Trade: Obama was right on supporting Trans-Pacific Partnership

On Health Care: Medicare-for-All creates a two-tier market for healthcare

DELANEY: The bill that Senator Sanders drafted, by definition will lower quality in healthcare, because it says specifically that the rates will be the same as current Medicare rates. And the data is clear, Medicare does not cover the cost of healthcare, it covers 80% of the costs of healthcare in this country. And private insurance covers 120%, so if you start underpaying all the healthcare providers, you're going to create a two tier market where wealthy people buy their healthcare with cash, and the union people will have that healthcare plan taken away; they will be forced into an underfunded system.

SANDERS: Hospitals will save substantial sums of money because they're not going to be spending a fortune doing billing and other bureaucratic things.

DELANEY: I've done the math, it doesn't add up.

On Health Care: Don't be party of subtraction; don't take healthcare away

Rep. Delaney: We can create a universal health care system to give everyone basic health care for free, and I have a proposal to do it. But we don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction, and telling half the country, who has private health insurance, that their health insurance is illegal. It'll underfund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it's bad policy.

SANDERS: The fact is, tens of millions of people lose their health insurance every single year when they change jobs or their employer changes that insurance. If you want stability in the health care system, if you want a system which gives you freedom of choice with regard to a doctor or a hospital, the answer is to get rid of the profiteering of the drug companies and the insurance companies, move to Medicare-for-all.

On Health Care: Math is wrong on Medicare for All

DELANEY: I've done the math, it doesn't add up.

SANDERS: Maybe you did that and made money off of healthcare, but our job is to run a nonprofit healthcare system. [America will save] $500 billion a year by ending all of the incredible complexities of health insurance companies.

DELANEY: His math is wrong. It's been well-documented that if all the bills were paid at Medicare rate, which I think it's in section 1,200 of their bill, then many hospitals in this country would close. Why do we have to be so extreme? Why can't we just give everyone health care as a right, and allow them to have choice? I'm starting to think this is not about health care. This is an anti-private-sector strategy.

On Health Care: BetterCare: I understand the medical business

On Principles & Values: Platform of real solutions, not impossible promises

I'm the product of the American dream. I believe in it. I'm the grandson of immigrants, the son of a construction worker. My wife April and I have four amazing daughters. I was the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, created thousands of jobs and then served in Congress. That's the type of background -- and my platform is about real solutions, not impossible promises, that can beat Trump and govern.

On Principles & Values: We win on reality instead of fairy-tale economics

On Social Security: We didn't make private pensions illegal for Social Security

On Tax Reform: Raise capital gains rate, but no unconstitutional taxes