Warren unveils Medicare-for-all payment plan without middle class taxes


Here's how Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will pay for that.
Warren has faced criticism in recent weeks after refusing to concede that middle class taxes will rise to pay for her Medicare-for-all plan and not spelling out how she'd pay for it without them. But on Friday, Warren did just that, proposing a $20.5 trillion tax package that would specifically target America's wealthiest people and companies to pay for the assumed $34 trillion Medicare-for-all.
To start, Warren proposes cracking down on tax avoidance to lower its rate from 15 percent to 10 percent. If her planned investment in IRS enforcement works out, it could bring in $2.3 trillion. She then would implement a financial transactions tax of .1 percent on every stock, bond, or derivatives transaction to raise $800 billion. A 35 percent minimum tax on foreign earnings brings in $2.9 trillion, while an increase on Warren's earlier wealth tax on billionaires earns $1 trillion. A few trillion here and a few trillion there more, and Warren gets to the number she needs, Vox explains.
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Of course, with a Republican Senate, passing all these taxes won't be easy. But NBC News' Benjy Sarlin still calls Warren's proposal an "amazing power move" in which she didn't "concede any general election talking points on taxes" and now has a "detailed plan to wave at."
The proposal also includes plans for lowering prescription drug and health procedure costs to reduce the demand on health insurance in the first place. Find all of Warren's proposal here.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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