2008 Vice Presidential debate, at WUSTL: on Health Care

Joe Biden: McCain health plan is ultimate Bridge to Nowhere

PALIN: He’s proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so they can purchase their own health care coverage. That’s budget neutral. That doesn’t cost the government anything as opposed t Barack Obama’s plan to mandate health care coverage and have a universal government-run program.

BIDEN: McCain’s health care plan, you know, it’s with one hand you giveth, the other you taketh. You know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit a family will get? He taxes as income every one of you who has a health care plan through your employer. That’s how he raises $3.6 trillion: taxing your health care benefit, which his website points out will go straight to the insurance company. Then you’re going to have to replace the plan you get through your employer--on average it costs $12,000--you have to replace a $12,000 plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the insurance company. I call that the “Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere.

Sarah Palin: $5,000 tax credit for families to buy their own coverage

PALIN: I am. He’s proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so that they can get out there and they can purchase their own health care coverage. That’s budget neutral. That doesn’t cost the government anything as opposed to Barack Obama’s plan to mandate health care coverage and have a universal government-run program. McCain also wants to erase those artificial lines between states so that through competition, we can cross state lines and if there’s a better plan offered somewhere else, we would be able to purchase that. So affordability and accessibility will be the keys.

BIDEN: You know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit a family will get? He taxes as income every one of you who has a health care plan through your employer. You’re going to have to replace the plan you get through your employer--which averages $12,000--with a $5,000 check. I call that the “Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere.”

Sarah Palin: FactCheck: Obama’s plan does not remove private insurance

Sarah Palin: FactCheck: McCain’s plan costs $14B/year; not budget-neutral

The McCain campaign hasn’t released an estimate of how much the plan would cost, but independent experts contradict Palin’s claim of a cost-free program.

The nonpartisan U.S. Budget Watch’s fiscal voter guide estimates that McCain’s tax credit would increase the deficit by somewhere between $288 billion to $364 billion by the year 2013, and that making employer health benefits taxable would bring in between $201 billion to $274 billion in revenue. That nets out to a shortfall of somewhere between $14 billion to $163 billion--for that year alone.