Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has finally released her “Medicare for All” plan, which her campaign says would cost $52 trillion over the next 10 years. While Warren pledged that middle-class taxes would not increase to pay for “Medicare for All,” given Congress’s refusal to pass a regular budget for a decade, the looming debt crisis due to hundreds of trillions in underfunded existing entitlements like Social Security, and decades of record-breaking federal budget deficits, it’s a certainty her pledge will turn out to be as reliable as President Obama’s “you can keep your doctor.”
In other words, take it to the bank, and watch that check bounce.
Warren tweeted a lengthy explanation of her “Medicare for All” plan, which she also fatuously claims will return $11 trillion to Americans. Presumably, the tooth fairy will be dropping that money off under American taxpayers’ pillows.
Today, I’m releasing my plan to pay for #MedicareForAll. Here’s the headline: My plan won’t raise taxes one penny on middle-class families. In fact, we’ll return about $11 trillion to the American people. That’s bigger than the biggest tax cut in our history. Here’s how:
Health care costs are rising and crushing families. And a serious diagnosis can financially ruin a middle-class family even if they have insurance. We let private insurance and drug companies profit from that pain. Enough. We need a system that reflects our values.
The best plan is #MedicareForAll—the only plan that gives everyone in America full coverage, with the freedom to see any doctor, with no premiums, copays, and deductibles—so getting sick doesn’t mean you go broke. No restrictions, no surprises, no more bills.
My #MedicareForAll plan would end the stranglehold of health costs on American families. It would return a whopping $11 trillion to families who will never pay another premium or medical bill. It would be one of the greatest federal expansions of middle-class wealth in history.
Let’s get to the math! (All backed up by independent experts and economists.) First, we’re going to rein in the waste, inefficiency, and corporate profiteering by insurance and drug companies. And we’ll bring down out-of-control costs.
Instead, we’re going to spend more on care itself. And thanks to getting rid of all the waste in the system, we can offer top-of-the-line care for all 331 million people in the U.S. for LESS than what we’ll pay if we do nothing to fix our broken system now.
How is it paid for? Well, if you’re not in the top 1%, Wall Street, or a big corporation—congratulations, you don’t pay a penny more and you’re fully covered by #MedicareForAll.
To cover the cost, we start by taking the money that employers are currently paying in the form of premiums to private insurance companies and have them pay it to Medicare instead.
If you believe all that, you probably also believe in Santa Claus, and that his real name is The Government (TM).
Today, I’m releasing my plan to pay for #MedicareForAll. Here’s the headline: My plan won't raise taxes one penny on middle-class families. In fact, we'll return about $11 TRILLION to the American people. That's bigger than the biggest tax cut in our history. Here's how:
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 1, 2019
Of the $52 trillion that Warren’s plan would cost, she says $20.5 trillion will require new federal spending. This is not just redirecting money from the defense budget to health care, but require the government bring in $20.5 trillion in new spending money.
In Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan, she claims the health care debate is not about whether Americans should pay more or less, it’s about who should pay. In Warren’s eyes that’s the wealthy, but in reality it’s every day Americans that will foot this bill.
While Warren claims that her plan would not raise taxes on the middle class, which is a fiscal impossibility given that the federal government already cannot pay all its existing expenses and thus has borrowed the largest national debt in world history, several of Warren’s proposed taxes would affect the incomes of middle-class taxpayers. For example, “the ’employer Medicare contribution’ is a type of payroll head tax, which economists universally agree is borne by employees,” Garrett Watson at Tax Foundation said. In other words, even in a plan she claims doesn’t raise taxes on middle-income earners, Warren raises taxes on middle-income earners.
Watson said “Medicare for All” could also result in lower investment and lower incomes for middle-class workers long-term.
A report by the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concludes Medicare for All would nearly bankrupt Americans. The study claims, in order to raise the estimated $30 trillion over a decade that Warren and Bernie Sanders outlined in their original “Medicare for All” plan, it would require a 32 percent payroll tax, a 25 percent income surtax, or a 42 percent value-added tax. All of these would represent massive tax increases on all Americans.
“Tax increases on high earners, corporations, and the financial sector by themselves could not cover much more than one-third of the cost of Medicare for All,” the report said. This report was based on the premise that “Medicare for All” would cost $30 trillion, while Warren is now proposing $22 trillion more in spending. Where is she going to get that money?
It’s a good thing Christmas is around the corner. Hopefully, the magical elves in Santa’s workshop can handcraft a way to give Warren $52 trillion for Christmas, or else the American taxpayers are in desperate trouble if Warren ever becomes president.
