Bernie Sanders Says Tax Hike on Lower, Middle Classes Will Pay For Medicare For All Plan

Nick Kangadis | November 26, 2019
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How do you pay — at least somewhat — for free health care for every single American without raising taxes on the middle class? You don’t, apparently.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was speaking at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Monday, and the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate announced how taxes will affect middle and lower class Americans should his Medicare for All plan be implemented.

“What we will do — what we will do is have a four percent tax on income exempting the first $29,000," Sanders told his supporters. "All right, good. You — you’re better at arithmetic than I am. Because what that means is if you are that average family in the middle who makes $60,000 a year, that means we’re going to tax you on $31,000 at four percent.”

Basically, if you make over $29,000 a year, your taxes on income above that threshold will go up.

Take a look at Sanders’ comments below:

 

As you could see in the video above, Sanders’ supporters don’t seem to mind the proposed increase.

Some critics of Sanders’ announcement, like Beth Baumann of Townhall, brought up a very good point about Sanders’ proposed tax hike.

“If he wanted everyone to make, at a minimum, $15/hour or $31,200 a year, even the so-called "working poor" would have their taxes increased,” Baumann wrote. “A single person making $31,200 with an exemption of $14,500 would still have to pay four percent more on $16,700, which is almost $700 a year. That's a lot of money, especially for someone making minimum wage.”

Sanders’ announcement comes one month after the CNN/New York Times debate where his Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), seemingly dodged a question as to whether she would raise taxes on the middle class in her Medicare for All plan.

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