Bernie Sanders: 'We will raise taxes'

[Cali_Democrat]

(CNN)Bernie Sanders unapologetically warned on Monday that taxes would rise if he is elected President, an admission that could please his liberal base but trigger criticism from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Speaking at an intimate Democratic town hall in Des Moines broadcast by CNN, Sanders was asked how he would pay for his single-payer, Medicare-for-all proposal.

"We will raise taxes. Yes we will," Sanders said.

Sanders argued, however, that the taxes are worth it, given what American families will save in premiums. And, living up to his image as a self-declared Democratic socialist, he warned corporations and the richest Americans that they would pay more.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/25/politics/democratic-town-hall-highlights/index.html

[Dawson Leery]

1. The working classes cannot afford that right now Berns.

[Fawke Em]

5. Sure they can if it SAVES them an average of $5,000 a year.

And it does.

You will no longer be paying health insurance premiums to private companies.

Even if your taxes go up $446 a year, you still save $5,000.

People will like that.

[trueblue2007]

34. I MAKE 800 a month on my SS. Bernies raising taxes WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME.

[notadmblnd]

40. Social Security is not subject to income tax

unless you have other substantial income. So no, it probably won't kill you.

[roody]

56. Repug talking point - surprised to see it here

[BainsBane]

65. The problem is his math doesn't add up

In the plan he presented. While it's true that in countries where there is single payer the cost of healthcare is lower, that isn't the same as knowing precisely what it will cost here, particularly while it's being phased in.

[Fearless]

74. They said the same about Obamacare... THEY WERE REPUBLICANS.

[floriduck]

10. Then why is Hillary

only willing to pay $12/hrs instead of $15?

[FreakinDJ]

20. Lame reply

But they save $5000 per yr on average

[INdemo]

27. You are just as naive as the people that think Bernie is going to raise their taxes by

25% or more. You obviously haven't read about the plan. All you see is Ah..ha here is my chance to jump on Bernie Sanders Healtcare Plan...Yeah..Ok Hillary watch me now am I doing good?..Yes Hillary I thought you would like my aggressivness..

Bernie Sanders plan would raise the employee payroll tax by 2.5%
and employer tax by 6.5%

The average household income in this country is around $52,000

Hey get back here you haven't read this through this yet....

to figure your tax you would take your weekly or monthy or annual income and multiply by 025 or
$52,000 x .025 = $1,300.00 per year or $109.00 per month or $25.00 per week.
employer contribution would be $3380.00 per year, per month =$281.67 and week=$65.00

Keep in mind the premiums to private insurance would be no more none..
Now do doubt you will find something wrong with this but there it is..

Go Bernie !!!

[liberalnarb]

29. They can't afford to save $5,000 a year or more.

Really? They can't afford a raise in their wages? Sure they can. If you actually listen to Bernie's full plan in full context, it ultimately saves the working class a yuge amount of money.

[notadmblnd]

39. There's that- No, we can't again.

We can if we pay people a living wage. We can, if people save thousands in health insurance premiums and deductibles.

Geesh. Sometimes I think some people put more effort into coming up with excuses about why something can't be done, than the actual effort it would take to just do it.

HRC: No, We Can't!

[Kalidurga]

60. Sometimes I think some people put more effort into coming up with excuses

about why something can't be done, than the actual effort it would take to just do it.


I see you have met my children.

[notadmblnd]

62. It's funny, cause I was thinking about my family as I wrote it.

We must be related.

[Kalidurga]

64. Probably my family has been in the US a long long long long time

I think I am related to everyone.

[Nanjeanne]

48. And they won't have to

2.2% payroll increase will be offset by no premiums and put more money in working class pockets

First rise in tax bracket is a 4% increase on the income of $250-500,000
Next bracket is income over 500,000-2 million.

I don't think those incomes are considered working class.

And I'm sure you know how taxes work. If you earn 251,000 your tax on the $249,000 stays as it is and you only pay the additional 4% on the $2000 above.

Working class?

Oh, and to be fair I do think everyone pays about $1.65 a week for paid family leave. Pretty good deal. IMHO

[valerief]

2. If CNN wasn't so HRC biased, it would read, "We will dramatically lower your expenses." nt

[liberalnarb]

21. +1

[merrily]

76. BOOM!

[hrmjustin]

3. How dare you quote him!

[liberalnarb]

24. If they had quoted him in context it would say

"We will raise taxes, but save you $5,000 a year." How dare they quote him? Where did you get that impression of Bernie supporters? I wish they would quote him more! They don't quote him enough! And when they do they twist it out of context. This OP is an example "We will raise taxes." That may be 1/2 a quote, but if they had given the full context it would have been fair.

[all american girl]

72. He is going to have to come up with a short verison answer for this

A lot of Americans with hear "taxes being raised" and won't listen to the rest. Thanks Reagan

[Duckhunter935]

57. yes, use the FULL quote

I agree

[draa]

4. When did people turn into Republicans.

Democrats used to be the party that believed in taxes to pay for social services. Lately though, many are sounding very Republican. smh

[INdemo]

35. Hell half of Hillary's campaign advisors are former Republican stategists so o just maybe

they have many of Hillary's supporters believing these Republican talking points and there is just no changing their mind.

My Dad told me when I was young man that arguing with a Republican would go like this

Standing outside on a clear sun shinny day you say to the Republican "What a beautiful sunny day. Just look at that beautiful blue sky...the Republican would reply I don't see any sunshine and and the sky is gray,overcast and there is no convincing him other wise

That is the way it is here on DU now with the Hillary supporters...forget it there is no arguing with them you will never win. They are convinced that Hillary is this Goddess destined to be President and they will not have it any other way than to believe ..yes she is the annointed one.


Sooner or later these Clinton operatives will leave us and DU might get back to normal but I doubt that.

[draa]

36. My grandfather was just like that, he didn't like or trust a Republican.

He was born in 1907 and was a life long Democrat. I got my love of politics from him and he taught me so much about both parties. But I'll tell you now, he would hurt some of these modern day Democrats. They've co-opted his party and he wouldn't stand for this shit.

[notadmblnd]

41. I was thinking the very same thing.

But they're trying to tell us that we're not real Democrats. We're real Democrats, we're just not "Party Democrats"

[VulgarPoet]

82. Funny how preferring a progressive to a warhawk

automatically makes those who support Sanders into "fake democrats", right? Lmao sorry, I said I had no love for the idea of a Bush dynasty-- well, I also have no love for a lateral Clinton dynasty.

[reddread]

6. and you keep five thousand dollars a year

[uponit7771]

47. This is false, no one is going to believe the employers aren't going to just shift cost to the...

... employer in the median income range like they have for the last 10 years.

That's crazy

[marlakay]

7. What I tell people is I have two close friends who married Canadians

they pay the higher taxes for their medical and they have been there 40 years now, having kids, operations, etc.

The have normal middle class lives, regular jobs like nurse aid and preschool teacher and both with their husbands one a carpenter and one a salesman of supplies own their own homes and are doing fine.

They say all the time they worry for their US families who worry about paying for medical.

Neither has ever had a hard time paying their bills with the higher taxes. And never had to wait to see a doctor.

[hoosierlib]

8. And you would prefer...

That he lie or evade like HRC?

[Bonobo]

9. Doesn't quite square with the "but he's not PRAGMATIC!" meme, does it?

Sorry.

[fredamae]

11. I am willing to pay more

Especially since We All would benefit - including the 29mil still uninsured. Who would argue that? I like the idea of getting a return from the tax dollars I invest. Who wouldn't support that? When the overall annual savings are greater than the tax increase?

[TexasBushwhacker]

42. Me too

And I'm single with no kids. I don't get the tax breaks that families get.

[bigwillq]

12. Of course he will. Most, if not all, Democrats do.

You tax the people and spend their money. It's ain't rocket science in how Democratic officials have paid for things now and in the past.

[liberalnarb]

31. Don't forget that the plans usually save the people money in the long run.

In this case that $5,000

[ecstatic]

13. The problem is that his numbers are being pulled out of thin air

He said a family who was paying $10k in insurance premiums might end up paying $5k in extra taxes. Is there a calculator available for anyone who wants to know exactly how his/her life would change under Bernie's plan? My employer pays 100% of my health insurance, so I'd like to know more about the extra $5k or however much would apply to me. He should provide more specific details.

[Avalux]

15. Here - try this.

http://valadian.github.io/SandersHealthcareCalculator/

[ecstatic]

22. thanks. nt

[TCJ70]

16. Yup...

...here ya go. My family, according to the initial proposal, stands to save upwards of $4,400.

http://valadian.github.io/SandersHealthcareCalculator/

[SickOfTheOnePct]

18. If your employer is paying 100% of your insurance premium

Then you won't save any money; in fact, your paycheck will be a bit less than it is now.

[ecstatic]

25. Looks like my tax rate will go from

around 17% to 18.6%.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

28. The lowest brackets

will see an additional 2.2%, and it goes up more than that in the much higher brackets.

Whatever your effective rate is now, add a minimum of 2.2%.

[uponit7771]

50. Thats if you believe the employer wont shift their 6.4% increase to the employee like they've been..

...doing for the last 10 years

[SickOfTheOnePct]

53. No idea what you're talking about n/t

[uponit7771]

58. Employers must pay 6.4% of cost and employee pays 2.2%, the employer will no doubt shift their

... cost to the employee like they've been doing for the last 10 years.

[RichVRichV]

68. Anything the employer is currently paying for health insurance gets saved by them (It's not zero).

And any higher deductibles that are currently payed by the employee to make up for current lower employer shares goes away under the new plan. How many times are you going to go round and round on this without taking into account all current costs?

[uponit7771]

71. Employers currently don't pay 6.4% avg into HCI for the median income, that would be an increase

... to them.

Keywords; median income.

My issue with this proposal is instead of going into medicare for all this is just a shift in who's being paid with the same high cost and or deductibles.

I would like to see more details but they're not going to put out anything more on this...

[kristopher]

79. What is the employer's contribution to your health care?

[uponit7771]

83. 75% which is still less than 6.4% and I'm no were around the median

[INdemo]

44. I can tell you your employer will save one hell of a lot of money with

Bernie's Plan..And what are your employer sponsored insurance deductibles?

I had 100% employer paid premiums ..well sorta.. I worked in the trades.

For a family ..it was $600. - $1000. deductible right off the top.
Then it was 80%....A annual wellness Physical which is suppose to be free I fought for two years to get them to pay a $1200.00 bill and finally got on $750.00 back....
All in all wasn't worth a damn.

[uponit7771]

51. By putting a 6.4% floor on those premiums?! What if they employer for the median is only paying

... 5%!?

[INdemo]

77. I dont see your point

The premiums for group insurance now has to be much more

[SickOfTheOnePct]

52. My employer doesn't pay 100%

That was the poster I was replying to.

My employer (federal government) pays 72%, and I pay 28%. My premiums are about $250 every two weeks for family coverage. $350 individual deductible/$700 family deductible, $6000/$10000 max out of pocket. $25 co-pay for doctor visits, $35 co-pay for specialists. I have excellent health insurance, and it provides excellent care. Never had a problem with payment, never a problem with questioning validity of claims.

I have no issue with going to single payer, but I also realize that it probably won't be as easy to get an appointment or as quick to get tests done. I'm fine with that to ensure that everyone has healthcare.

I agree employers will probably save money, as will the vast majority of employees. But if someone has their premiums paid 100% by their employer, they aren't going to save any money in premiums. They might save in co-pays, etc., but I have no idea what kind of policy the previous poster has.

[Kalidurga]

63. But in this case the employer might be able to pass on their savings to their employees...

so they might get a raise and it would offset the higher taxes.

[all american girl]

73. My husband is in the Army, so our medical is paid for,

unless we have to use Tri-care because we are at a remote site (in 25 years only happened for 2 years), so we would loose money. As a good democrat, I'm willing to do this for the greater good, but trust me, many won't. This is considered part of our pay package and this will not go down well.

[kristopher]

80. As I recall from 8 years in the service...

The access is limited even when military hospitals are available - especially for dependents. The roster of specialists is limited and the general perception was that the physicians were not the cream of the crop.

I'm speculating but I'd imagine that specialized military hospitals would continue to be available and the families would be free to go anywhere they chose.

I'd also be willing to bet that the cost of medical premiums would be a line item payment added to the service-member's pay. (give with one hand take with the other).

[all american girl]

81. Yes, when my husband was a LT, it was hard to get appointments and the pharmacy was a mess

at Ft Carson. Now, it hasn't been an issue. We've been stationed at places with big hospitals to small clinics. Even when we were at Carson, the pharmacy issue was changing for the better.

I can only speak for my family, but we have had only one doctor that I hated...he was such a jerk, but he wasn't a bad doctor. I was glad when he left. His replacement was awesome!!!!

If we are not at a remote site (no military hospital/clinic) we pay no cost. When we were in Germany, I had to have a mammogram, the clinic didn't do these procedures, so they made my an appointment on the economy....no costs.

I just think that military people are going to freak out....and republicans will love that. Just so you know, I've always said that everyone should have our type of healthcare....I've been very happy with it.

[cheapdate]

33. If your employer pays you your money

instead of paying your premiums, it works. If they just keep the money (i.e. give you a big pay cut) it doesn't.

[Avalux]

14. It's too bad CNN is so irresponsible or they'd explain the flip side of raising taxes.

I don't mind a little bit more going to taxes, when adversely, my monthly health insurance premium goes down, and I end up saving several thousand a year.

It's called a NET GAIN.

I don't expect CNN to clarify all this though, they are, after all, a corporation.

[cherokeeprogressive]

17. I will GLADLY pay higher taxes if it means SOMEONE, ANYONE gets better health care than

they do now. I can afford it. On the plus side, it would pretty much balance out if I were to stop paying health care premiums altogether.

Go Bernie Fucking Go.

[Broward]

19. And the problem is?

[Matariki]

23. You must be so excited to get a nice juicy little soundbite

Without the context it sounds downright apocalyptic.

You've been scrambling all week for a good soundbite to stick to him, lol.

[Cali_Democrat]

30. Meh...copy and pasting articles isn't all that exciting, but I do like to see the discussion that ensues

Sometimes other posters even question my race/ethnicity, but I call them on their bullshit and they run away with their tails between their legs.

Too funny.

[morningfog]

26. Recommend! Bernie is right on this.

[aikoaiko]

32. Bernie is awesomely honest and explained the big picture savings. People understood.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Who's gonna pay for Hillary's "Manhattan Project" to break the encryption on your iphone?

Manhattan Projects aren't exactly cheap. Even by Manhattan Prices.

[workinclasszero]

38. Bernie Sanders: 'We will raise taxes'

That's gonna go over well Bernie.

[redstateblues]

43. Running on raising taxes is political suicide

If Bernie wins the nomination he is toast in the GE. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

[INdemo]

46. And Hillary wins hands down against Republicans?

Voters do not want a Clinton or a Bush

Democrats will stay home believe me they wont vote if Hillary is the nominee..

[redstateblues]

59. any Democrat will beat Trump

Hillary would be a better President than Bernie.

[sadoldgirl]

45. No, even if it only saves a family

$1,-2,000 , what is the complaint?

Oh, forget it. Private insurance companies are
so altruistic!

[Sunlei]

49. I'd be happy to pay an income based tax as payment for a gov. provided medicare healthcare plan.

I rather pay Gov. medicare then pay the 'for profit' insurance corps!

[Nanjeanne]

54. I am very happy with my single payer system

The day I got on Medicare and stopped paying $850/month premiums as an owner of my own small business was a very happy day for me! I pay, with gap insurance $220/month.

And if the Congress would let govt negotiate prescription drug prices, I'd be thrilled.

[Gothmog]

55. Great material for a ton of negative ads

[neverforget]

66. And the upside is everybody is covered.

How horrible.

[Gothmog]

84. Bernie Sanders's fiction-filled campaign

Tell the Washington Post that these numbers have been debunked https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-fiction-filled-campaign/2016/01/27/cd1b2866-c478-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html

Mr. Sanders’s story continues with fantastical claims about how he would make the European social model work in the United States. He admits that he would have to raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for his universal, Medicare-for-all health-care plan, and he promises massive savings on health-care costs that would translate into generous benefits for ordinary people, putting them well ahead, on net. But he does not adequately explain where those massive savings would come from. Getting rid of corporate advertising and overhead would only yield so much. Savings would also have to come from slashing payments to doctors and hospitals and denying benefits that people want.

He would be a braver truth-teller if he explained how he would go about rationing health care like European countries do. His program would be more grounded in reality if he addressed the fact of chronic slow growth in Europe and explained how he would update the 20th-century model of social democracy to accomplish its goals more efficiently. Instead, he promises large benefits and few drawbacks.

Meanwhile, when asked how Mr. Sanders would tackle future deficits, as he would already be raising taxes for health-care expansion and the rest of his program, his advisers claimed that more government spending “will result in higher growth, which will improve our fiscal situation.” This resembles Republican arguments that tax cuts will juice the economy and pay for themselves — and is equally fanciful.

The Washington Post is agreeing with Prof. Krugman's analysis

[MrMickeysMom]

61. Keep getting ripped off by the insurance companies who are supporting candidates

The American health care system spends 17.5% of the GDP to deliver an inadaquate healthcare delivery system that has poor outcomes compared to nations who guarantee healthcare with better outcomes as a right to their citizens. The American healthcare delivery system leaves out 29 million people... so, I guess we should just be grateful that "it's getting better" and incrementally through crumbs with stats like that.

How much do you pay for premiums, Mr. and Mrs. America? After you explain how much, then ask if this includes dental care? If you have dental care, how much do you pay for having your teeth cleaned yearly? Then, ask yourself how much you pay in co-insurance and co-pays after your premiums for seeing a specialist. This money out of pocket goes to your provider before they order any tests that you also pay for out of pocket until you've reached your deductables.

Take all the insurance figures out, and replace it with a 2.2% payroll tax, which is about what employers would pay, negotiated drug prices instead of over-blown drug prices, and realize that NOBODY ISN'T COVERED.

The numbers are clear, with taxes appropriately covering it, and everybody's covered. Can you comprehend that, Mr. and Mrs. America?

Next.

[Health Wagon]

67. ...and save famiies up to $5,000

a year.

Context is important.

Have a nice evening.

[Truprogressive85]

69. I will take the tax hike

raise taxes my taxes
- I wont pay those high premiums to greedy Insurance companies
+ Medicare for all
---------------------------- = Savings for the American people

[Half-Century Man]

70. It really is a simple concept.

Money will be spent into a general pool for healthcare. Whether it is a corporate pool or a governmental pool is the question. As corporate pools spend approximately 4X the amount of money on administrative costs, I see no value in pooling my healthcare money where is is siphoned off to make the rich richer. That's just fucking stupid.

Bottom line, the healthcare insurance industry is a parasitic existence. It adds no value; in fact it retards healthcare outcome. The pharmaceutical/medical equipment industries take advantage of people who are facing death or poverty. Their prime motivator is money not healthy people.
It is just stupid to give sociopaths any sort of control over any segment of the population.

So, employers and citizens stop paying insurance companies money, we eliminate the ever changing rates and levels of coverage. Instead we pay a fixed rate and it saves us thousands of dollars a year, when compared to the old system.

[Fearless]

75. Agreed. It is profoundly simple. n/t

[RandiFan1290]

78. I didn't vote for the Bush tax cuts. nt