Pete Buttigieg eyes 35 percent corporate tax rate to fund health plan
WASHINGTON – Pete Buttigieg would pay for his $1.5 trillion health care plan by rolling back President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cut to return the rate to 35 percent and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, campaign spokesman Sean Savett said.
Buttigieg’s “Medicare for all who want it” plan would extend the federal health care program for seniors as an option for Americans who prefer it, while also letting people opt for private plans. It’s a centerpiece of his campaign, positioning himself against the more farreaching “Medicare for All” plan by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which would put all Americans in Medicare.
The specificity from his campaign comes days after Buttigieg ripped into Warren during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Ohio for being evasive about how she’d finance her plan. Some of Warren’s allies noted that the South Bend, Ind., mayor hadn’t detailed his pay-fors beyond broadly calling for “cost savings and corporate tax reform.”
Buttigieg said he would repeal the corporate tax cut in the 2017 Republican tax law enacted under Trump, which lowered the rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. That would raise an estimated $1.4 trillion, according to the non-partisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
“The vast majority of that can be recovered by rolling back the corporate tax rate cut portion of the Trump tax cuts,” Buttigieg said Sunday on NBC’S “Meet The Press.”
Negotiating prices
Savett said Buttigieg would also seek savings by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, capping out-of-pocket pharmaceutical costs and imposing penalties on drug companies that raise prices at a higher rate than inflation.
Buttigieg is competing for fourth place in the Democratic race with California Sen. Kamala Harris at 5 percent to 6 percent in national polls, behind Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sanders. He’s positioning himself as an alternative to Biden for moderate Democrats while ratcheting up his opposition to ideas from the left wing of the party.
Warren has risen in the polls while attracting college-educated white voters who are key to Buttigieg’s path to the nomination. She has dodged questions about what taxes she’d raise to finance “Medicare For All,” saying only that, “I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle-class families.”
“The problem isn’t just how she talks about it; the problem is the multitrillion-dollar hole,” Buttigieg said Sunday on CNN’S “State of the Union.” He said that would be the case “even if you accept what she’s saying – taxes go up, premiums go down, you’ll come out ahead.”