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Friday, January 29, 2016

Bernie Sanders’s fiction-filled campaign

SEN. BERNIE Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading in New Hampshire and within striking distance in Iowa, in large part because he is playing the role of uncorrupted anti-establishment crusader. But Mr. Sanders is not a brave truth-teller. He is a politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it.

[Katrina vanden Heuvel: Bernie Sanders is the realist we should elect]

Mr. Sanders’s tale starts with the bad guys: Wall Street and corporate money. The existence of large banks and lax campaign finance laws explains why working Americans are not thriving, he says, and why the progressive agenda has not advanced. Here is a reality check: Wall Street has already undergone a round of reform, significantly reducing the risks big banks pose to the financial system. The evolution and structure of the world economy, not mere corporate deck-stacking, explained many of the big economic challenges the country still faces. And even with radical campaign finance reform, many Americans and their representatives would still oppose the Sanders agenda.

Mr. Sanders’s story continues with fantastical claims about how he would make the European social model work in the United States. He admits that he would have to raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for his universal, Medicare-for-all health-care plan, and he promises massive savings on health-care costs that would translate into generous benefits for ordinary people, putting them well ahead, on net. But he does not adequately explain where those massive savings would come from. Getting rid of corporate advertising and overhead would only yield so much. Savings would also have to come from slashing payments to doctors and hospitals and denying benefits that people want.

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2 comments:

  1. No more socialist/commies, the country can not take it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really feel sorry for young people today. This country has gone to h%ll in a hand basket. I'm so glad I grew up in the era where a mans word was his bond and decency was expected and given. My generation had something to look forward to. Now with so much uncertainty and evil in the world I really worry about my grand children's future.

    Is it me....or does it seem like the whole world has lost its compass?

    ReplyDelete

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