Inslee on Harris’ Prior Support for Tax Hikes for Medicare for All: She’ll ‘Run on Preserving and Extending what We Have’

During an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) responded to a question on 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ previous support for tax increases to pay for a Medicare for All scheme by saying that he’s “very confident she will run on preserving and extending what we have, which are millions and millions of people tonight who have health insurance.”

After Inslee said that Harris supports “tax fairness to working families, not just billionaire friends,” asked, “In 2019, when Kamala Harris was then Senator Harris running for president, she ran on Medicare for All and a 4% tax on families who make more than $100,000. … Do you want her running on Medicare for All, increasing taxes by 4% on those who make more than $100,000?”

Inslee responded, “I want and I’m very confident she will run on preserving and extending what we have, which are millions and millions of people tonight who have health insurance. And…we have hundreds of thousands of children in my state who have health care tonight. And she’s going to defend that. And when it comes to taxes, she’s not going to be handing out billions of dollars in taxes to multi-millionaire friends of Donald Trump’s. She’s going to pursue economic policies that favor working people, including the right to join a union, which is very important, including the right to have simple rules that protect working people like restrictions on hav[ing] to work in the incredible heat that we’re now having. I can tell you that her heart is with working people, and I’m very confident that she’s going to extend those in many, many different ways. And, it’s a real thing, … just one example of what’s at stake in this election, I just was flying across my state this week, saw these forest fires near my home. And we’ve got a guy who’s calling climate change a hoax and we have a champion for clean energy, to develop clean energy industrial sectors, which we are growing. That’s the kind of candidate that I want.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett