Elizabeth Warren Doesn’t Want to Say How She’d Pay for Her Health Care Plan

Elizabeth Warren famously has a plan for everything—everything, that is, except financing the single-payer health care system she says she supports. It’s a telling omission that reveals what happens when Warren’s wonky tendencies come into conflict with her campaign mantras.

Since launching her presidential campaign, the Massachusetts Democrat has rolled out Warren-branded plans for everything from universal childcare to green energy to “economic patriotism.” But on health care, so far, the senator has been content to endorse Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan, which would eliminate most private health insurance and set up a government-run health insurance system, without putting forth one of her own.

The Sanders plan would, according to Sanders himself as well as multiple independent estimates, require new government spending totaling somewhere between $30 and $40 trillion a year. While Sanders has outlined ways to offset some of that cost, he hasn’t put forth a plan to fully finance the additional spending. He has, however, made clear that it would require higher taxes on the middle class.

Trump Admin to Investigate School District Accused of Putting Girls in Danger Over ‘Gender Identity’ Policy

Ex-Fox News Regular Suggests Trump’s US Is Beginning to Mirror North Korea

Trump vows US will strike Iran’s power plants, bridges if Strait of Hormuz is not reopened

Federal judge blocks Trump push to collect race-based admissions data

Scott Jennings Mocks Dems Over Radical ‘No Kings’ Rallies

Kangaroo Escapes Petting Zoo in Feat of Derring-Do, Leads Zookeeper on 3-Day Chase as Heat-Seeking Drone Helps Solve the Case

This Democrat vows to save Nebraska’s ‘Blue Dot.’ Critics say he’s the one putting it at risk

Artemis II astronauts face toilet trouble as they head toward the moon

Breaking: Downed US F-15 Crew Member Rescued After Evading Capture in Iranian Mountains

DHS slams Democrat Sen Chris Van Hollen claim, says illegal alien caused crash while fleeing ICE

Illegal migrant charged in deadly 124 mph chase that killed pregnant teen, unborn child

Massive manhunt underway in New Hampshire town after gunman allegedly wounds police officer, fires on family

Jesse Watters Asks Todd Blanche Point-Blank If He Thinks Bondi Mishandled Epstein Files

Hegseth Says Service Members May Carry Firearms on Military Bases Reversing Dangerous Biden Policy

A de facto pro forma: Why Washington fixated these sessions as the DHS shutdown dragged on through recess

But despite endorsing Sanders’ plan, Warren has repeatedly declined to say that middle-class taxes would have to go up. She dodged the question in earlier debates this year. And at the debate last night, she once again all but refused to answer the question directly.

Instead, she offered a vague promise that “middle-class families are going to pay less” while insisting that “those at the very top—the richest individuals and the biggest corporations—are going to pay more.”

When a debate moderator pressed her specifically on the question of taxes, she still declined to offer a direct response. Families have to deal with “total cost,” she said, reiterating her support for Medicare for All. “Costs are going to go up for wealthier individuals, and costs are going to go up for giant corporations. But for hard-working families across this country, costs are going to go down, and that’s how it should work under Medicare for All in our health care system.” The specific question—Would taxes rise for middle-class families?—remained unanswered.

In part, this is a sign that Warren, though running what is nominally a bold progressive campaign, has adopted the conventional Democratic playbook when it comes to tax hikes. As Russell Berman writes at The Atlantic, in recent years the party’s presidential candidates have tended to adhere to the rule that it’s OK to propose raising taxes on the rich—but not on the broadly defined middle class.