Abdul El-Sayed on Meet the Press
As if his long list of tax hikes wasn’t bad enough, Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed admitted that even his “health plan” is just a giant tax increase.
During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker pressed El-Sayed on whether his plan would require tax increases.
NBC Host Kristen Welker: “Some Americans worry, though, you can only make Medicare free and universal if you increase taxes. If you are elected and make this push would you need to increase taxes?”
Michigan Senate Democrat Nominee Abdul El-Sayed: “As I’ve said across this campaign, I am for taxing billionaires their wealth.”
Welker: “What about people who make less than a billion and less than a million dollars, though? What about people making less than a million dollars?”
El-Sayed: “For the average person, when you look at your W-2, if you are an employee you get paid every two or four weeks, after you pay your taxes the next biggest check that comes off the top of your pay stub is to your health insurance company. Imagine instead of paying that to your health insurance company whose CEO makes $20 million a year, instead you paid a little bit more in taxes for healthcare you wouldn’t lose if you lost your job or turned 26 or got married or got divorced. I think all of us would be a lot more interested in that kind of a system if we knew that our healthcare would be free at the point of care and would be free without having to worry about losing it in general. So there’s an opportunity here, I think, to trade what we give to a big corporation who gets to decide who we get to see and who we don’t, for a little bit more paid into FICA. I think that’s a trade that’s worth making. I think the broader public understands that that’s a trade worth making considering how many people are holding medical debt, a third of all Michigan households right now.”
Welker: “Just to be very clear, you’re describing this tradeoff. You are effectively acknowledging that people making less than a million dollars could see their taxes go up. I just want to be very clear. Is that a yes?”
El-Sayed: “I’m saying that we would be paying for healthcare in a different way. Instead of paying a health insurance company whose CEO makes $20 million I would much rather pay for durable healthcare into a government which of course we all know provides healthcare for seniors who need healthcare the most. If I’m trading paying a CEO to make more money or paying a government to guarantee me healthcare, I’m picking the latter every time.”
El-Sayed has already endorsed a lengthy list of tax hikes, including a higher top income tax rate, higher capital gains taxes, a federal wealth tax, an expanded Death Tax, elimination of stepped-up basis, and a payroll tax hike.
El-Sayed has made his position clear. His “Medicare for All” agenda is yet another job-killing tax hike.
Watch the interview below:
