On Friday, Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren revealed how she expects to pay for her $52 trillion health care plan that is claimed to include $20.5 trillion in new federal spending without raising middle class taxes. For MSNBC Live host Hallie Jackson and Warren campaign reporter Ali Vitali, the plan was not a left-wing fairy tale, but rather the "ultimate clapback to her critics."
Clearly excited that Warren came up with yet another plan, Jackson reported, "She is just out on her plan for paying for Medicare for All, capping the press release with the ultimate clapback to her critics, in a tweet confirming 'My plan won't raise taxes one penny on middle class families.'" "Confirming" is a generous assumption that an on screen graphic would later dispel, but not before Jackson tossed the conversation to Vitali in Des Moines, "This one say big deal because she's been hammered, hammered by her opponents on how she's going to pay for her Medicare for All plan. Now she's got an answer."
Vitali echoed Jackson's "clapback" remarks, "You mentioned it's the ultimate clapback to her critics because in this plan they say that they're not raising middle class taxes by even one penny. What they are doing, and this should come as no surprise if you followed her at all on the campaign trail, they're talking about raising taxes and levying these taxes on investors, the top one percent, big corporations, all the people that Elizabeth Warren regularly talks about needing to pay more into the system."
At the exact moment when Vitali was stating that, according to Warren, middle class taxes won't go up, the on screen graphic showed that the plan calls $8.8 trillion in new Medicare employer taxes, which even Warren's fellow Democrats have called a payroll tax increase that will fall on the middle class .
That contradiction aside, Vitali finished by declaring this to be a good thing for Warren, "You call it the ultimate clapback, and really it is because it allows her to come off her heels and going on offense" and "In this plan she says something interesting, 'we need plans, not slogans,' that’s clearly a challenge to the rest of the field to show A: their work, how they would pay for their own health care plan and B: come at her, challenge her on these. She put the numbers right in front of us."
She did put the numbers in front of us, but MSNBC's reporters were to busy praising the existence of a plan to challenge the actual substance of the plan.
Here is a transcript for the November 1 show. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson
10:01 AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: We've got a busy Friday for you. Our team of reporters and analysts are out covering all the top stories of the day and we want to start with that breaking news from Senator Warren's campaign. She is just out on her plan for paying for Medicare for All, capping the press release with the ultimate clapback to her critics, in a tweet confirming “My plan won't raise taxes one penny on middle class families.” I want to bring in NBC's Ali Vitali and Mike Memoli, both in Iowa. Ali’s in Des Moines for us. Listen Ali, Elizabeth Warren has a plan released it seems almost every day. This one say big deal because she's been hammered, hammered by her opponents on how she's going to pay for her Medicare for All plan. Now she's got an answer.
ALI VITALI: Yeah, Hallie, now she has an answer. I never thought I'd be describing a policy paper as hotly anticipated, but here we are in 2019 learning new things every day. I think the simplest way to go about explaining what's in this plan is taking it in three parts. You've got the cost, how she's going to pay for it, and then the politics of it overall. So, on the cost front we were really looking at what's the number? What's the price tag that the Warren team is going to put on new federal spending for Medicare for all? We now know that this number is 20.5 trillion. And basically how they get there, because that estimate is lower than some of the other estimates for Medicare for All costs that we've seen, is they start making pretty explicit policy decisions about how they want to go about implementing Medicare for All. Things like reducing the cost of prescription drugs aggressively. Getting at the cost of care and trying to take those costs down as well. All of that factors into how they get to that 20.5 trillion number. And then on the pay for it side, you mentioned it's the ultimate clapback to her critics because in this plan they say that they're not raising middle class taxes by even one penny. What they are doing, and this should come as no surprise if you followed her at all on the campaign trail, they're talking about raising taxes and levying these taxes on investors, the top 1%, big corporations, all the people that Elizabeth Warren regularly talks about needing to pay more—JACKSON: YEP
VITALI:-- into the system. That's a big part of how they plan to pay for that $20.5 trillion. Then just look at the politics of this moment, Hallie. You call it the ultimate clap back, and really it is because it allows her to come off her heels and going on offense on this question of A: what her healthcare plan means for the middle class, but B: then how she’s going to pay for it. In this plan she says something interesting, “we need plans, not slogans”, that’s clearly a challenge to the rest of the field to show A: their work, how they would pay for their own health care plan and B: come at her, challenge her on these. She put the numbers right in front of us.
