Stephen Colbert pushed Elizabeth Warren to specifically answer whether her plan for “Medicare for All” would raise taxes on the middle class.
Warren has shied away from answering numerous questions about whether middle-class taxes would go up under her administration, and Colbert pressed her on the matter Tuesday during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“You keep being asked in the debates — how are you going to pay for it? Are you going to raise the middle-class taxes?” he said.
“Right,” the senator from Massachusetts responded.
“How are you going to pay for it? Are you going to raise the middle-class taxes?” Colbert himself asked Warren to laughter.
Warren then said that the wealthiest Americans and big corporations would see their “costs” go up and that middle-class families would see their “costs” go down.
“But will their taxes go up?” Colbert asked, interrupting the senator as she began to answer.
“But here’s the thing,” the comedian said. “I’ve listened to these answers a few times before, and I just want to make a parallel suggestion for you about how you might defend the taxes that perhaps you’re not mentioning in your sentence.”
“Isn’t ‘Medicare for All’ like public school? There might be taxes for it, but you certainly save money on sending your kids to school and do you want to live in a world where kids aren’t educated? Do you want to live in a world where your fellow Americans are dying even if it costs a little bit of money?” Colbert said.
“So, I accept your point and believe in your point, healthcare is a basic human right,” Warren responded before beginning a long monologue about the healthcare system in America and about how “Medicare for All” would benefit the country, although she never directly answered Colbert’s question about taxes on the middle class.
