Ken Berwitz
Have a spare $18 trillion dollars? Don\’t worry, I don\’t need it all right now. You can give it to me over the next ten years. We OK with that?
No, I have not lost my mind (any more than usual, that is). This is what the Wall Street Journal estimates the cost would be of proposals Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (D-VT) has made since starting his run for the White House:
Sen. Bernie Sanders,whose liberal call to action has propelled his long-shot presidential campaign,is proposing an array of new programs that would amount to the largestpeacetime expansion of government in modern American history.
In all, he backs atleast $18 trillion in new spending over a decade, according to a tally by TheWall Street Journal, a sum that alarms conservatives and gives even manyDemocrats pause.
In fairness, candidates for the presidency make a lot of proposals, knowing that only some – maybe only a few – will ever come to fruition. I doubt Mr. Sanders believes that all this money would wind up being spent.
On the other hand, Bernie Sanders is a self-professed socialist, whose answer to wild-eyed spending like that is to get the money from people who earn money – and the more the merrier from “the rich” (a term which is rarely defined). So maybe he does believe all the money would be spent.
And it\’s hardly as if he is alone within his party. As the WSJ posits – and I think it is right – Sanders\’ proposals give “many Democrats” pause”…which means it doesn\’t give pause to the rest of them…
…which meshes nicely with DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz\’s refusal – at least twice so far – to state the difference between the Democrat Party\’s objectives and socialism.
But this, of course, can all be resolved easily if you happen to have that spare $18 trillion over the next decade. Heck, at $1.8 trillion a year, it\’s completely interest free.
In the mind of Mr. Sanders, that probably would be quite a bargain.
