Lastly, those three main points aside, one should take a look at major differences within the issues during the current primary so that it is easy to see who truly is the standard-bearer of the American Left. Currently, the major difference between Sanders and Warren is the inclination for Warren to means test her policies, while Sanders remains committed to universal reforms, understanding that the more means testing there is for policies, the more likely they are to be chipped away into nothingness due to unpopularity and are likely to help less people. On every single issue, Bernie Sanders is well to the left of Elizabeth Warren, standing for the same things, but involving and including way more people to benefit from them.

Current major differences:

Student Debt Cancellation — Elizabeth Warren’s plan will eliminate existing student debt for around 75% of the student debt holding population and will reduce some debt for around 95%. Sanders wants to eliminate all student debt —spending up to $1.6 trillion, $2.2 trillion over 10 years. Warren, on the other hand prefers an income-based sliding scale that eliminates $50,000 of student debt for households making below $100,000 a year. For households making above $100,000, the debt cancellation would decrease until it hit zero at $250,000 a year.

Housing — The housing plans between Sanders and Warren differ majorly in that Bernie Sanders calls for national rent control and Elizabeth Warren claims that high cost rent differs per geography of location — a form of means testing based on the cost of living in certain states.

Medicare for All — This is a major difference between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at the present moment because we are not getting straightforward ideas from Warren when it comes to the role of private insurance in Medicare for All. Some are even saying there is intentional ambiguity about her Medicare for All plan and how little she brings it up because it allows her to walk a fine line on healthcare. This is an area of tension that has caused Warren to come under fire from those on the Left who see the dodgy nature of her stance on private insurance abolition in the implementation of Medicare for All to be suspicious and insulting to those who have been locked into this fight for years and whose lives are on the line. While both involve means testing for their prescription drug price plans, Warren supports a plan that caps out of pocket spending at $500 a month while Sanders caps out of pocket prescription drug spending at $200 a year and ensures that no American making less than $25,000 and no family making less than $52,000 a year would be charged a co-payment on prescription medications. Sanders’ plan goes as far as eliminating existing medical debt for those who have had to suffer under the current immoral system of for-profit health insurance.

Climate Crisis — The difference between Warren and Sanders on climate change policy may look small, but it is important to recognize that the difference comes down to how willing and through which avenues the candidates want to tackle climate change head on. Sanders’ plan, dubbed as the Green New Deal, pushes for a 100% renewable transportation and electric grid by 2030, zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the declaration of climate change as a national emergency. It also pledges to create more than 20 million well-paying green jobs, spending $16.3 trillion over the next decade on this full package. Warren’s plan borrows from former Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee’s climate plan, self-dubbing itself as a comprehensive cross-industry (public and private) plan to curb our current trajectory regarding climate. Her plan would cost $3 trillion, including an additional $1 trillion over 10 years to be put toward energy programs, jobs and research. Warren looks at climate change as an issue of political will and government corruption, intending to use “the levers of government to tackle the climate crisis” seemingly more so than she is willing to have massive green job-boosting spending packages as Sanders is attempting to do. Of course, like all these policies, higher cost isn’t the best measure of effectiveness, but Sanders’ plan goes further than anyone else’s to address the impending climate catastrophe by being effectively radical and expensive and getting the stamp of approval from the Sunrise Movement for being the “the biggest and boldest plan and vision out there.” The single most important thing that sets Warren and Sanders apart on climate change, something that shows their ideological difference involving the role of capitalism and profit motive in climate change, is that Sanders would dramatically expand public ownership of utilities to make electricity “virtually free” by 2035.