Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper to discuss an array of issues. One of the topics that came up was Medicare For All.
Tapper played a clip of former Vice President Joe Biden in Michigan talking about how it's impossible to implement Medicare For All without raising the taxes on the middle class.
"Well, I find that people say they're for Medicare For All but they're not going to tax the middle class because we don't need to do that. Come on," Biden said. "What is this, a fantasy world here?"
Sanders finally admitted what we all knew to be true: the middle class will see a tax increase as a result of Medicare For All.
"Health care is not free, right? We have to pay for it through premiums and out of pocket expenses," Sanders replied. "In Canada, they pay through taxes. We'll have to do that."
Bernie Sanders on raising middle class taxes for government health care: “we'll have to do that”https://t.co/BEZ15eeOdA pic.twitter.com/fkA60utaJl
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 28, 2019
But don't worry! According to Bernie, you'll actually be saving money by moving to Medicare For All.
"I do believe, in a progressive way, people will have to pay taxes. The wealthy will, obviously, pay the lion's share of those taxes. But, at the end of the day, the vast majority of the American people will pay substantially less for health care that they now receive because we're going to do away with hundreds of millions of dollars of administration waste, we're going to do away with the incredible profiteering of the insurance companies and the drug companies," Sanders said.
According to Bernie, people will be paying less because they won't be paying deductibles, premiums and or co-payments.
He also said Biden is being "disingenuous" when talking about Medicare For All.
"If I raise your taxes, hypothetically, by $8,000 and I lower the health care cost that you're now paying with premiums and deductibles, which are now $12,000, you're $4,000 in the are good," Sanders said.
And now the question becomes...where do these numbers come from? How does Bernie figure that people will save money if they're paying more in taxes.
The math doesn't add up, Bernie. Then again, you may be doing common core math.
Sen. Bernie Sanders says Joe Biden is “disingenuous” for saying it’d be a “fantasy” to pay for Medicare For All without raising taxes on the middle class.
— CNN (@CNN) July 28, 2019
“Every study tells us that Medicare For All will save substantial sums of money.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/DnuT0aF76L