Posted on 01/19/2016 3:13:21 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Say, do you remember that time when Vermont was going to use Obamacare as a jumping off point and build their own single payer health care system? Yeah, Bernie Sanders was all over that one at the time, promoting a socialist vision of the future which would finally see everyone taken care of equally. How did that work out again? (Washington Post, from 2014)
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) has abandoned a years-long push for a universal health-care system in the state after budget analysts said the program would require what he called "enormous" new taxes…
But Michael Costa, Shumlin's deputy director of health care reform, concluded the plan would have required an 11.5 percent payroll tax on all Vermont businesses and an income tax hike of up to 9.5 percent. Those taxes wouldn't have covered transition costs to the new system, which would have amounted to at least $500 million.
The reason I asked at the top whether or not you remembered it is because Bernie Sanders sure doesn’t seem to. In fact, as this editorial from the Washington Examiner points out, he doesn’t really even want to talk about it at all.
When Andrea Mitchell asked the question, Sanders gave just the sort of weak answer you’d expect.
“Let me just say that you might want to ask the governor of the state of Vermont why he could not do it,” Sanders said. “I’m not the governor. I’m the senator from the state of Vermont.”
You might want to ask the governor? Would that be the Democrat governor you walked hand in hand with as you promoted this scheme? The fact that it failed has little or nothing to do with either Sanders or his governor, but with the reality that the entire plan was a pie in the sky, socialist dream which would have bankrupted the state in a single year and sent the taxpayers into open revolt.
The incident is worth bringing up today because, as the editorial board goes on to correctly point out, most of the proposals coming out of the Sanders campaign headquarters are cut from the same cloth. They are promises of the moon without enough fuel to even make it into orbit.
This all serves to illustrate the pie-in-the-sky nature of Sanders’ agenda. In addition to a $14 trillion healthcare plan, Sanders wants free college for all. He wants to add significantly to the subsidies for seniors’ prescription drugs. He wants to expand subsidies for solar and wind energy while ending all fossil fuel leases on federal lands. He wants to raise the minimum wage to $15. He wants to subsidize small farmers still further.
The problem is, it will be impossible for a President Sanders to keep such promises without running out of other people’s money to spend and promise. As his questioners pointed out on Sunday, Sanders’ agenda includes substantial tax increases on the middle class. Taken together, his plans that increase taxes by nearly $20 trillion over a decade.
This is socialism in a nutshell and kudos to the Washington Times editorial board for pointing it out so succinctly. Sanders has grand dreams for the nation, just as many socialist leaders no doubt did at the beginning of the revolutions in various other countries. But fulfilling them relies entirely on spending other people’s money at a massive clip with no provision for making up the shortfall. That $20T in taxes figure is probably a bit on the generous side from what I’ve been reading. It could, in reality, be far, far worse. And in all of the campaign speeches and debate performances, I’ve yet to hear Sanders seriously address the issue of the national debt. Sure, that may be because the moderators at Democrat debates don’t care to discuss such messy things, but when you’re pushing plans involving that amount of cash it seems as if you’d feel obligated to mention how you were going to pay for it, no?
For anyone seriously considering Bernie Sanders as a viable candidate these days, do try to keep this in mind. These are the empty promises one normally hears from the crackpot dictators of failing socialist states. It’s a shell game that the suckers always lose and the suckers are the citizens. Don’t be fooled again.
Oooooooooh no! President Bernie Sanders Claus running out of other people’s money!!! How can that be? He is magic. (Sarcasm added)
They don’t care. They want in at the start of the pyramid scheme. They are all hoping there’s just enough for them to get their payoff and to hell with the rest.
I disagree with the entire thrust of this. Bernie is at least a communist and would deliver a whole lot more for the people than Obama / Ryan who are not even spending Other People’s Money. They are spending money out of thin air.
Its FREE!
That’s all people hear and someone else is going to pay for it.
Americans love Santa Claus.
Oh dn;’t tell those idiots out there who think voting for this socialist, while not understanding socialism the truth.
their fairy tale life is all about so called rights, freebies, and drugs.
One reporter on the BBC stated that the republicans have moved to the far right, and yet ignores how the Dem party has moved way off base left.
One only has to look at the communist rules of 63 to see nearly all of their goals are met and still the little dweebs think the world is a fairy tale and we should thank them for being born.
Its like winning the lottery and living the life you want.
I’ve yet to see a politician who could deliver on that dream.
no problem at all, he will just print up more money anytime he wants more
just like O
Those who are dreaming of President Sanders Claus have no clue where the money for his freebies comes from nor will they care as long as they get their “presents”.
If economic reality didn’t intrude, socialism would have a lot going for it.
Eventually, you suffer the fate of Greece and Puerto Rico.
Running a paradise can be very expensive.
There will never be a President Sanders!
If Hillary is indicted, or if she has a total (and premature) senile collapse, the Dems will rush in to fill the gap with the Serb-hater Biden and/or the plagiarist and radical Elizabeth Warren. Or perhaps even Gore (another extreme Serb-hater, among other things—Gasp!).
Even from a Dem’s point of view, Sanders cannot win and cannot be allowed to win!!!!
Most people see government as god. It can make anything happen. We just need to unite and forget the divisiveness and partisanship. All 300+ million of us could live in Beverly Hills. Just pass a law. Better yet, an executive order.
The best thing that can be said for Bernie Sanders is - he ain’t Hillary Clinton.
Not that whatever Bernie is, is particularly better than whatever Herself is. Just a different flavor for the Kool-Aid, both varieties are laced with cyanide, diazepam (aka Valium), promethazine (aka Phenergan), chloral hydrate (sometimes called “knockout drops”), just as was used at the Jonestown mass suicide.
Shut up and drink the Kool-Aid.
YES - but he would have the progressive, statist Federal Reserve available to print him tons more money, at zero interest rates.
Its why the old freak marxist rails against “Wall Street” but doesn’t issue a peep about the “bankers bank” that all is responsible to Wall Street.
How do you think the USA already is $20 Trillion in debt and rising quickly?
agreed...but that won’t prevent the public from voting for more communism (Bernie) in case the Republican party puts up yet another candidate the public doesn’t want ... yet again...like it did in 2008 (and I have to admit I was surprised to see Romney pretty much fold up and stop campaigning the moment he got the lead....even Obama was publicly preparing to leave the White House, but Gov. Romney folded like the proverbial deck chair)
anyway, it is my opinion that Mr. Bush, Kasich, Christie, Rubio, and a couple more ...would very likely lose the election and EVEN IF THEY HAVE IT HANDED TO THEM with a D-party nomination of Hillary! Just my opinion,
Difference between a democrat and socialist and commie?
Well who cares about other people’s money when you can print all you want at any denomination - at least one country already has billion denominations for every day commerce - Bernie would feel he needs to keep up.
If I have a dollar and you have 20 dollars and I can borrow 20 dollars then I have 41 dollars and your children own me 20 dollars.
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