Warren Repeatedly Dodges Question About Middle Class Tax Hike to Finance Medicare for All

(CNSNews.com) – Democrat presidential front-runner Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) refused several opportunities Tuesday night to answer a yes-or-no question about whether she plans to raise taxes on most Americans to pay for her “gold standard” Medicare for All plan.

“You have not specified how you’re going to pay for the most expensive plan, Medicare for All,” one of the debate moderators told Warren. “Will you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it, yes or no?”

Warren responded: “So I have made clear what my principles are here, and that is costs will go up for the wealthy and for big corporations. And for hard-working, middle-class families, costs will go down.”

Warren added that no one should have to worry about how they’re going to pay for their health care, especially after a dire diagnosis.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg challenged Warren on her (non)answer:

Well, we heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didn’t get a yes or no answer. Look, this is why people here in the Midwest are so frustrated with Washington in general and Capitol Hill in particular. Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything. Except this.

No plan has been laid out to explain how a multi-trillion-dollar hole in this Medicare-for-All plan that Senator Warren is putting forward is supposed to get filled in. And the thing is, we really can deliver health care for every American and move forward with the boldest, biggest transformation since the inception of Medicare itself.

But the way to do it — without a giant multi-trillion-dollar hole and without having to avoid a yes-or-no question — is Medicare for all who want it. We take a version of Medicare. We let you access it if you want to. And if you prefer to stay on your private plan, you can do that, too. That is what most Americans want, Medicare for all who want it, trusting you to make the right decision for your health care and for your family. And it can be delivered without an increase on the middle-class taxes.

Warren, asked to respond to Buttigieg, said “Medicare for All is the gold standard.”

“It is the way we get health care coverage for every single American, including the family whose child has been diagnosed with cancer, including the person who’s just gotten an MS diagnosis. That’s how we make sure that everyone gets health care.

“We can pay for this,” she said, then repeated: “I’ve laid out the basic principles. Costs are going to go up for the wealthy. They’re going to go up for big corporations. They will not go up for middle-class families. And I will not sign a bill into law that raises their costs, because costs are what people care about.”

Buttigieg responded that American people want “a choice.”

And the choice of Medicare for all who want it, which is affordable for everyone, because we make sure that the subsidies are in place, allows you to get that health care. It’s just better than Medicare for all whether you want it or not.

And I don’t understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage to everybody is to obliterate private plans, kicking 150 million Americans off of their insurance in four short years, when we could achieve that same big, bold goal — and once again, we have a president — we’re competing to be president for the day after Trump.

Our country will be horrifyingly polarized, even more than now, after everything we’ve been through, after everything we are about to go through, this country will be even more divided. Why unnecessarily divide this country over health care when there’s a better way to deliver coverage for all?

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), taking credit for writing “the damn bill,” said under his Medicare for All bill, “Premiums are gone. Co-payments are gone. Deductibles are gone. All out-of-pocket expenses are gone…At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people will save money on their health care bills.

“But I do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up. They’re going to go up significantly for the wealthy. And for virtually everybody, the tax increase they pay will be substantially less — substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out-of-pocket expansions.”

The moderator returned to Warren: “Senator Warren, will you acknowledge what the senator just said about taxes going up?”

Warren repeated: “So my view on this, and what I have committed to, is costs will go down for hardworking, middle-class families. I will not embrace a plan like Medicare for All who can afford it that will leave behind millions of people who cannot…(She changed the subject).

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) chimed in:

At least Bernie’s being honest here and saying how he’s going to pay for this and that taxes are going to go up. And I’m sorry, Elizabeth, but you have not said that, and I think we owe it to the American people to tell them where we’re going to send the invoice.

I believe the best and boldest idea here is to not trash Obamacare but to do exactly what Barack Obama wanted to do from the beginning and that’s have a public option that would bring down the cost of the premium and expand the number of people covered and take on the pharmaceutical companies. That is what we should be doing instead of kicking 149 million people off their insurance in our years.

And I’m tired of hearing, whenever I say these things, ‘Oh, it’s Republican talking points.’ You are making Republican talking points right now in this room by coming out for a plan that’s going to do that. I think there is a better way that is bold, that will cover more people, and it’s the one we should get behind.