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Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING!

2016-04-22 · explainer · Hank · 7:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Economics) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

Hank lays out the tax plans of Hillary Clinton (keep the code roughly the same, add a top bracket) and Bernie Sanders (raise taxes across the board, mostly to fund single-payer health care), explaining brackets, payroll and capital gains taxes, and concludes that he does not know which plan is best.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Taxes aren't fun but this video will be; talking about plans instead of personified ideology

  • ★★ Hank says that instead of talking about candidates as personified ideology and yelling, as everyone else does, he will just talk about Sanders' and Clinton's tax plans. — 00:00:13

00:00:26 — Current state of US taxes: shares by level of government and by source; how tax brackets and marginal rates work

  • ★★ Hank says about 60% of taxes paid in the US go to the federal government, 27% to states and 14% to local governments. — 00:00:30 · United States
  • ★★ Hank says federal taxes come mostly from four sources: 37% ordinary income tax, 33% payroll tax, 11% corporate tax and 5-10% capital gains tax. — 00:00:39
  • ★★ Hank says the phrase 'tax bracket' is misleading: reaching a higher bracket does not tax all income at the higher rate; only the income in each slice is taxed at that slice's (marginal) rate. — 00:01:00

00:01:32 — Income and payroll taxes: Clinton's new top bracket, Sanders' 2.2% and new brackets; payroll tax, Medicare and Social Security explained; Sanders' payroll changes

  • ★★★ Hank says Clinton's plan keeps everything the same except a new bracket: income over $5 million would be taxed at 43.6% instead of 39.6%. — 00:01:32
  • ★★★ Hank says that under Sanders' plan everybody pays an extra 2.2% income tax, which goes to creating a single-payer health-care system. — 00:01:52
  • ★★ Hank says Sanders' plan moves brackets around and adds new ones for $500,000-$2 million, $2-10 million and over $10 million. — 00:01:58
  • ★★ Hank explains payroll tax is basically income tax paid by both employee and employer; the self-employed pay all of it, then called self-employment tax. (hedged) — 00:02:13
  • ★★ Hank says payroll taxes are weirdly invisible: withheld before the paycheck arrives, or paid by the employer without the worker knowing. — 00:02:36
  • ★★ Hank says that as an employer he pays a bunch of taxes per employee: for someone making $40,000 a year he actually pays $46,000. — 00:02:47
  • ★★ Hank says the Medicare payroll tax has just two brackets, above and below $250,000. — 00:03:08
  • ★★ Hank says Social Security pays retirees based on career earnings but not above a certain level, about $118,000, beyond which no Social Security payroll tax is taken. — 00:03:17
  • ★★★ Hank says Clinton leaves payroll taxes alone, while Sanders raises everyone's payroll tax by an additional 6.2% to help fund single-payer health care. — 00:03:40
  • ★★ Hank says Sanders' plan reintroduces the Social Security tax on income over $250,000, so income between $118,000 and $250,000 would still be free of that tax. — 00:03:52

00:04:01 — Capital gains, deductions, tax credits, a high-frequency trading tax and corporate taxes under both plans

  • ★★ Hank says gains from selling stocks, bonds or real estate at a higher price are taxed under a separate system, currently based on household income. — 00:04:03
  • ★★ Hank says Clinton keeps capital gains taxes much the same but raises taxes on medium-term investments, typical of more active stock traders. — 00:04:22
  • ★★★ Hank says Sanders adds the 2.2% tax to all capital gains and taxes capital gains at normal income rates above $250,000 of household income. — 00:04:31
  • ★★ Hank says both candidates share President Obama's plan to limit tax deductions taken by higher-income households. — 00:04:53 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank says Clinton would create a $1,200 tax credit for caregivers and tax credits for businesses with profit-sharing and skills-training programs. — 00:05:00
  • ★★ Hank says both candidates want a tax on high-frequency financial trading, though in different ways. — 00:05:07
  • ★★ Hank says both would keep the current corporate tax rate while closing loopholes such as offices in tax havens; their plans differ, but he won't get into corporate taxes. (playful) — 00:05:12

00:05:28 — Summary: Sanders raises taxes to fund single-payer; whether total costs fall is unknowable; Tax Policy Center criticism

  • ★★★ Hank sums up: Clinton leaves the tax code roughly the same, while Sanders raises taxes across the board, especially on those making over $250,000 a year, about 1.5% of Americans. — 00:05:28
  • ★★★ Hank says Sanders does this mostly to create a single-payer system in which the government is everyone's insurer, basically Medicare for everybody. (hedged) — 00:05:40
  • ★★ Hank says the revenue from Sanders' plan would also strengthen Social Security and pay for people to go to college. — 00:05:48
  • ★★★ Hank says that under Sanders tax rates would rise, but people already pay a lot in premiums, probably, so the goal is that the average person pays less overall in taxes plus health costs. (hedged) — 00:05:52
  • ★★ Hank says publicly funded health-care systems have been less expensive elsewhere in the world, but it is not known whether that would hold in the US. — 00:06:06 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank says US health costs are so complicated that it is impossible to know whether the new taxes would pay for universal health care or more revenue would be needed. (unsure) — 00:06:12
  • ★★ Hank says the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center pointed out that Sanders' plan would raise the costs of starting or growing a business, possibly enough to significantly decrease economic activity. (hedged) — 00:06:22
  • ★★ Hank suggests that people worrying less about health care or retirement might make the economy healthier, but says he doesn't know. (unsure) — 00:06:32

00:06:39 — Why more time on Sanders; the effects are impossible to know and Hank does not know which plan is best; John's Republican plans on Tuesday

  • ★ Hank says he spent more time on Sanders' plan than Clinton's because it would involve far, far more change. — 00:06:39
  • ★★★ Hank says it is easy to judge which plan seems better or more moral on a quick gut check, but impossible to know all their effects, and professionals disagree all the time on which is best. — 00:06:45
  • ★★★ Hank says something you will never hear on cable news: he does not know which plan is best for the country and its future. (unsure) — 00:07:01
  • ★ Hank says John will give his analysis of Ted Cruz's and Donald Trump's tax plans on Tuesday. — 00:07:15 · John Green, Donald Trump

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says the two plans almost shouldn't be compared, since Sanders' biggest tax increases depend on a massive change to the US health-care system. (hedged) — video description · United States
  • ★★ The description adds that neither candidate has a great chance of passing any significant legislation if the state of Congress remains the same. — video description · United States Congress
  • ★★ Hank says he looks at the plans apart from the current political climate and tries simply to explain them with as little opinion as he could muster. — video description
  • ★ Hank lists his sources: the Sanders and Clinton campaigns' own tax plans, the Tax Foundation's comparison of the candidates' plans, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on where federal tax revenue comes from, and the Tax Policy Center's analyses of the Sanders plan and of the major candidates' proposals. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Bernie Sanders · Hillary Clinton · tax · universal health care

Also: People: Barack Obama · Donald Trump · Ted Cruz

Organizations: Federal government of the United States · Tax Policy Center

Concepts: Cable news · capital gains tax · corporate tax · health care prices in the United States · high-frequency trading · higher education · Intellectual humility · intuition · ordinary income · payroll tax · stock market · tax bracket · tax credit · tax deduction

Places: United States

Policies: Medicare · Social Security

Only in the description or credits: Hillary Clinton tax plan · Tax Foundation · United States Congress

Also centred on Hillary Clinton: Nerdfighting in 2008, Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton · Obama Says Subscribe · VEEPSTAKES! · Benghazi: Explained · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals

Also centred on tax: Why Are Taxes So Complicated? (The Musical?) · Who Do Tax Breaks Benefit?

Also centred on universal health care: Ranting and Giving Stuff Away · Health Care Overhaul Summarized Via MASSIVE PIG · Health Care Reform Thought Bubble · Health Care Reform: The Hank Factor · Adorable Puppy Explains Health Care Bill · I OWN WARNER CHILCOTT!

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