Thread by @WilliamGale2

Big semantic debate coming about @ewarren tax plan -- Does it raise "taxes" on the middle class? Short answer -- it does not raise "burdens" on the middle class. 1/n

Currently, employers pay health insurance premia, which are (economists like me think) passed on to workers in the form of lower wages. 2/ n

Under @ewarren tax plan, those premia are gone but firms pay a tax -- Employer Medicare Contribution -- to the govt that is almost the same size as the premia

3/n

This tax would be shifted to workers (just like the premia are). Net effect -- no change in middle class burdens, but what is being shifted to the MC is now a "tax" rather than a "premia."

4 / n

And, of course, workers would gain from end of their own health insurance premia. Yes, they would have to pay taxes on this, but again it does not reduce their after-tax income or raise their burden.

5 / n

It's both accurate and important to focus on the burdens that people end up bearing and not focusing on whether their burdens are created by something called a "tax" or a "premia" or anything else.

6/ n (n= 6)