Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner tallies costs of Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ policy proposals.
Taken together, Sanders is proposing $19.6 trillion in new taxes over a decade, according to an analysis by the Washington Examiner, of which $14 trillion would come from his healthcare plan alone. To put that in perspective, the Congressional Budget Office projects that federal revenues over the next 10 years will be a total of $41.6 trillion, meaning that Sanders would raise taxes by 47 percent over current levels.
Business healthcare premium tax — $6.3 trillion
As part of his single-payer healthcare plan, Sanders would institute a 6.2 percent tax on employers to finance healthcare premiums for his new federally-run system, which he said would raise $630 billion per year. Though the tax would technically be imposed on employers, economic studies have shown that such taxes are ultimately passed onto workers. Sanders has argued that workers would be better off in the end anyway because of the money they’d save on insurance.
Ending tax free status of employer health insurance — $3.1 trillion
Sanders says he would raise $310 billion per year by ending the tax breaks for employer sponsored health insurance, which his campaign said would become “obsolete” if his single-payer plan were implemented. …
… Individual healthcare premium tax — $2.1 trillion
In addition to the business premium tax, Sanders would propose a 2.2 percent tax on individual income to raise another $210 billion per year to finance his healthcare plan.
Social Security tax hike — $1.2 trillion
To pay for his plan to expand Social Security, Sanders has proposed removing the cap on payroll taxes on income exceeding $250,000 per year. In 2016, the Social Security payroll tax only applies to earnings below $118,500.
