“I think it’s time and very important for people to understand what those differences are," between herself and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton said Tuesday in Iowa. Clinton to Iowans: Time to 'get real' about Sanders

Hillary Clinton said it’s time to “get real” about the differences she has with her other Democratic candidates, particularly Bernie Sanders.

“We’re getting into that period before the caucuses that I call the ‘let’s get real period,” Clinton said in Ames, Iowa, on Tuesday. “I think it’s time and very important for people to understand what those differences are.” (Those differences “pale in comparison to the differences we have with the Republicans," she hastened to add.)


Clinton went on to draw contrasts with Sanders on guns, health care and financial regulation.

On health care, Clinton said there were “significant” differences between her and the Vermont senator, who favors a single-payer system. She noted that she backed the Affordable Care Act's hybrid approach of federal and state exchanges, but private insurance plans subsidized based on income.

“Bernie, give him credit, has a different idea, and he’s introduced legislation I think nine times in the Congress and the Senate about what he thinks should be done,” Clinton said. “He wants to roll Medicare, Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program, the Affordable Care Act program and private health insurance into a national system and turn it over to the states to administer.”

"If that's the kind of revolution he's talking about, I am worried, folks," she added. "I think that would be a big problem."

Clinton also hit back on Sanders' critique that she had not done enough to regulate Wall Street, noting that she had fought against President George W. Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security.

“I was one of the leaders of the efforts to prevent that from happening, so don’t talk to me about standing up to corporate interests and big powers. I’ve got the scars to show for it, and I am proud of every single one of them,” Clinton said.

Clinton has stepped up her attacks on Sanders in recent days as polls suggest a tightening Democratic race. A new Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday found Sanders moving ahead of Clinton in Iowa, 49 percent to 45 percent; another Quinnipiac poll showed the Vermont senator ahead by 14 percentage points in New Hampshire.