Bernie Sanders: Taxes and Health Care

From the Washington Post:

Congress's chief budget analyst delivered a devastating assessment yesterday of the health-care proposals drafted by congressional Democrats, fueling an insurrection among fiscal conservatives in the House and pushing negotiators in the Senate to redouble efforts to draw up a new plan that more effectively restrains federal spending.

Under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee do not propose "the sort of fundamental changes" necessary to rein in the skyrocketing cost of government health programs, particularly Medicare. On the contrary, Elmendorf said, the measures would pile on an expensive new program to cover the uninsured.

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants ObamaCare. Sanders wants to spread the wealth around.

What he doesn't want to do is admit that the astronomical tax hike being supported by the Democrats and Socialist Sanders won't just impact the rich.

As a socialist, naturally Sanders falls back on class warfare to deflect from the reality of the tax hike.

He won't address the fact that small business owners will be hit and more jobs will be lost, having a catastrophic impact on the middle class. People need to understand that a tax on the "rich" doesn't happen in a vacuum. The effects ripple through the economy.



Transcript

MEGYN KELLY: The question is whether more taxes in a recession, in particular on the people who create jobs, is the answer, as your colleague in the House, Nancy Pelosi, thinks.

BERNIE SANDERS: If you don't do anything about health care and costs double in the ten years, that will be destructive not only to people but to the economy as well. The top one percent today earn more income than the bottom fifty. I am not going to raise taxes on the middle class or working families. Our friends on Wall Street can, in fact, afford to pay more in taxes.

KELLY: It's not just Wall Street. At what point do you draw the line? Seventy percent income tax OK with you? Eighty percent income tax OK with you?

SANDERS: Well as you know under Bush, the taxes for the very wealthy went substantially down; and the gap between the rich and everybody else grew wider.

KELLY: But you're fixing that.

SANDERS: So I do not stay up nights worrying for our friends on Wall Street as some people may.

KELLY: But really, I'm wondering. Where do you draw the line? Does sixty percent not shock the conscience?

SANDERS: We can discuss... well, again, Bush lowered taxes....

(crosstalk)

KELLY: But answer my question. Does sixty percent not shock the conscience?

SANDERS: Well, next time around we can talk about a fair tax system. How's that?

KELLY: No, no. This is... sir, you're about to vote on this. This thing may pass in the House. It's going to come over to you in the Senate. And I'm asking you if this is OK with you.

SANDERS: Well, it certainly is OK for me to tell my friends on Wall Street who just got a bonus of $600,000, they're going to pay more in taxes so that we can lower health care costs in America. Yeah.

KELLY: OK. So you want our viewers to believe that everybody who's going to be affected is a Wall Street fat cat.

SANDERS: Well, I want your viewers to believe that if we do nothing right now this country going to be in very serious trouble.

KELLY: OK. So you're not answering my question. You and I both know it's not all Wall Street fat cats. You won't answer the question about how much is too much. You know, our viewers want answers to these questions, sir.

SANDERS: Well, I will answer the question that when the top one percent earn more than the bottom fifty percent, I'm not going to ask the bottom fifty percent to pay more.

KELLY: All right. So I guess sixty, seventy, eighty percent -- all right for now.

SANDERS: That's not what I said, Megyn. Don't put words in my mouth.

KELLY: Well, you won't answer it one way or the other, sir, so I can only assume the answer is yes.

SANDERS: We're going to go after the top one or two percent. I think that that's appropriate if we need to raise revenue rather than going after the middle class.