Leisure suit Lizzie Warren is second in the national polls. She is ahead in New Hampshire. Many in the media consider Fauxcahontas the current Democrat favorite.
Warren’s is a supporter of “Medicare for all.” Her version would outlaw private health insurance. She would replace private insurance dumping every American into the Medicare system.
The official version is out
The release of her official campaign version of the plan came Friday. Lying Lizzie insists this can all be paid for through a tax on corporations plus what she’s fond of calling “ultra-millionaires.” In a break from party orthodoxy she is not claiming that if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. She is also not claiming that if you like your health insurance you can keep your insurance.
She is telling us all, upfront, that you are going to get all the healthcare the federal government thinks it would like to fund for you. Does that make you as warm and fuzzy as it does me? Interestingly she does not seem to grasp the economic fact: What a business sells is a purchase by you and me. There is no government money fairy.
She says the Easter Bunny will be taking over your health care. You will only pay in lettuce. Here’s how the math works. Corporate taxes and a wealth tax would create almost $20 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years. She is claiming her plan will cost $52 trillion over the same 10 years.
The math
My math says $52 trillion take away $20 trillion means somebody is going to have to come up with another $30 trillion. But this is clearly higher math and Lying Lizzie wants to legalize pot so maybe it makes sense to her.
Leisure Suit Lizzie says you’ll be able to save money according to The Wall Street Journal. Warren says that you’ll be off the hook for $11 trillion in private health care costs. So “Medicare for All” requires us to pay $11 trillion in new healthcare taxes we do not pay now. But Lying Lizzie says that won’t matter because we already pay for private healthcare.
That isn’t actually true. But let’s accept it for discussion sake. That means that instead of being $30 trillion short of paying for her healthcare plan she would be: $30 trillion less $11 trillion or $19 trillion short of paying for her healthcare plan. That means she will have to raise all taxes collected by the federal government by about 70% on everyone. That’s in addition to raising corporate taxes and adding wealth taxes.
Assuming
Let’s forget that ultra-millionaires and corporations have wealth mobility. Just forget that they can and will shift their money outside of the United States. Forget that increased business taxes reduce employment and wages. Let’s accept Fauxcahontas premises. Assume government programs never have cost overruns. Let’s forget that people who are not campaigning on the program say it will cost closer to $112 trillion over the 10 years not Lizzie’s $52 trillion.
Now, let’s talk about the 2 million people employed in the in the health insurance industry. The Wall Street Journal estimates they will lose their jobs over this. An economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told Kaiser Health News earlier this year that that could result in about two million jobs lost. What are they going to do?
Even the fast food industry is eliminating human inputs through technology because of government imposed minimum wages. So what do we do with them? Lizzie says “So if you’ve had a chance to read the plan, you’ll see no one gets left behind…” If that is true, no insurance worker left behind, then how would this work? These socialist candidates are great at killing good jobs and growing the government with their promises. Lieawatha Fauxcahontas is 1/1024th Right in Her Campaign Claims, unquestionably.
Lieawatha says
After flobbing about Fauxcahontas came up with this response “Some of the people currently working in health insurance will work in other parts of insurance — in life insurance, in auto insurance, in car insurance, some will work for Medicaid… ”
The assertion is that somehow because she nationalizes healthcare we are going to need more workers in car insurance? How does that work? Aren’t we moving to the shared economy and less vehicles? How does this hold together logically? And will those people in private industry be willing and able to move to government agency company towns?
Certainly nationalizing healthcare will increase the size of government. How is that going to do better things for healthcare than it has done for education? We are the ones voting for this fiction. Do you believe this explanation makes sense?
How is that going to work?
Warren has also said, according to Fox News, her plan had five years of “transition support” for those displaced. That explains what exactly? It admits that there will be substantial foreseeable job losses, displacement. The question is what do those people facing displacement do in the end? Where is the advantage in adding 2 million to the role of those on the government dole?
Lieawatha Fauxcahontas says “… Because what this is about is how we strengthen America’s middle class, and how we make sure that in transitions no one gets left behind… It’s right there in the plan, and it’s fully paid for.” Well not exactly Lizzie. We still have not answered where the remaining $19 trillion is coming from and how we are going to deal with the displacement of about 3% of the U.S. workforce. Every community in America will feel this.
In an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio before the “Medicare for all” plan’s release, Warren also acknowledged the 2 million jobs figure was likely accurate. Reporter Casey McDermott said to the Washington Examiner, “Regardless of what kind of money is involved, ‘Medicare for all’ would likely result in a pretty significant kind of shift in how our health care system is structured, and even supporters of that approach within the health policy world have said that would likely mean lost jobs in some form.”
Still she insists no tax increase
Warren continues to insist this won’t end up increasing taxes on average Americans one bit. But then again she insisted for years that she was Cherokee. It’ll be all the robber barons and their evil corporations that will fit the bill. But how Lizzie? How? Those costs won’t trickle down to you or your family. The cost of everything you buy will go up to pay the business taxes, so you will pay those taxes. She’ll be able to pay for this without middle-class tax increases.
Interestingly, even Bernie Sanders acknowledges would have to be done for his version of “Medicare for all.” Clearly, Lieawatha Fauxcahontas is 1/1024th Right in Her Campaign Claims.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee wrote, “It’s really cute how Warren and her eager beaver ‘progressive’ campaign staff, none of whom have ever run a business, think they’re smart enough to remake the entire economy without causing any problems… Warren concedes another study that estimates her plan would kill 2 million jobs, but calls that ‘part of the cost issue.’ If you’re one of those 2 million without a job, the elimination of your job isn’t a cost issue, it’s a catastrophe.”
When both sides doubt it…
Sen. Ben Sasse has a somewhat shorter statement. “Hahaha. This make-believe math is bonkers,” Sasse wrote.
Former VP Biden’s campaign said Warren’s “unrealistic plan” means she would “even further increase taxes on the middle class or break her commitment to these promised benefits… The mathematical gymnastics in this plan are all geared toward hiding a simple truth from voters: It’s impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle-class tax increases,” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said, according to Fox News.
This is operating under the assumption that Warren’s wealth tax is constitutional. Under her wealth tax proposal wealthy individuals families would pay marginal tax rates of 2 percent on net wealth over $50 million and 6 percent on wealth over $1 billion. Based on past precedent it probably isn’t.
That would mean the Warren “Medicare for all” plan would either have to be scrapped or you would have to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it. Surely Lieawatha Fauxcahontas is 1/1024th correct in her campaign claims. That’s a character flaw we can do without in a President.