Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., faced an unexpected grilling from “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on whether or not the middle class will face a tax hike to fund Medicare-for-all.
During the interview on Tuesday night, Colbert began the exchange by referring to Medicare-for-all as her “most radical” policy position.
“You keep being asked in the debates how are you going to pay for it, are you going to be raising the middle-class taxes… How are you going to pay for it? Are you going to be raising the middle-class taxes?” Colbert asked.
“So, here’s how we’re going to do this,” Warren responded. “Costs are going to go up for the wealthiest Americans, for big corporations… and hard-working middle-class families are going to see their costs going down.”
“But will their taxes go up?” Colbert pressed.
“But, here’s the thing,” Warren said.
“But, here’s the thing,” Colbert grinningly interrupted. “I’ve listened to these answers a few times before and I just want to make a parallel suggestion to you that you might defend the taxes perhaps that you’re not mentioning in your sentence.”
He continued by sharing his “parallel suggestion”: “Isn’t Medicare-for-all like public school? There might be taxes for it, but you certainly save a lot of money sending your kids to school and do you want to live in a world where your kids aren’t educated? Do you want to live in a world where your fellow citizens are dying, even if it costs a little bit of money?”
“So, I accept your point and I believe in your point,” Warren responded. “Health care is a basic human right. We fight for basic human rights, and that’s Medicare-for-all. Everyone gets covered.”