Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren brushed off a question on how she planned to pay for expensive education proposals, saying "there's always money."
In a November interview with National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García, the Massachusetts senator said, "The way I see it, there's always, c'mon, there's always money. It's there. Are we going to spend the money on defense or are we going to spend the money on our children?"
García asked whether Warren would commit to more funding for Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. "If the answer is yes, how do you pay for that?" García asked.
"So the answer is yes," Warren responded. "And pay for it? This is about our priorities, what matters most to us. A budget is about priorities."
Warren has faced frequent questions about how she plans to pay for her policy proposals. Democratic rivals criticized her reluctance to say whether her Medicare For All plan would require middle-class tax hikes, whereas Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has publicly said tax hikes would be needed. When Warren released her plan to pay for government-run health care in November, the Washington Post editorial board wrote that she promises "fantastically generous benefits, no premiums, co-payments or other cost-sharing, and a miraculously low price tag. It's fiction."