Medicare for All Economist Doubts Warren's Wealth Tax

An economist at Moody's Analytics who backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren's, D-Mass., healthcare reform plan has doubts about her wealth tax.

"In my mind, I don't think I would go the wealth tax way," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said Wednesday during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

"It's going to be pretty tough to execute on that."

Warren, a Democratic presidential frontrunner, has proposed paying for a Medicare-for-All plan by putting a 2% tax on wealth over $50 million and an additional 1% tax on wealth over $1 billion. The Massachusetts lawmaker estimates her healthcare overhaul will cost an additional $20.5 trillion in federal spending over 10 years without having to raise middle-class taxes.

Zandi signed a letter backing the calculations but said the analysis was not an endorsement of Medicare-for-All.

He told CNBC there are better ways to fund the plan, including juicing up the estate tax, reducing "preferential tax treatment" around capital gains and evaporating tax cuts for high-income households.

"Government is being starved. It needs more revenue," Zandi told CNBC, arguing government revenue as a share of GDP is "as low as it's been in 50 years. It's unprecedentedly low in a full-employment economy."

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