Economist: Spend 18 Trillion? Yeah Right, WSJ. Bernie’s Plan Would SAVE the US Trillions

SOCIALISM ALERT SOCIALISM ALERT SOCIALISM ALERT
– quote taken from FOX News, and the segment of the corporate mainstream media that is not pretending to be pro-People.

The Wall Street Journal wrote a telling piece that predicted that Bernie Sanders “backs $18 trillion in new spending over a decade.”

The problem is, that the number they had presented is flawed(what did you expect? They’re not the MAINstreet journal). First-off, that number is based on Bernie’s highest estimates. That number also mostly encompasses spending that is ALREADY being done- he just wants to change HOW that spending occurs.

And FYI, that 18 trillion is based on a DECADE of spending… or 1.8 trillion a year, about the amount it costs Trump to  grow that brain-worm he calls hair. Conspiracy theory much, WSJ?

And the knockout punch? The Economist that the WSJ had THEMSELVES cited in their work wrote an open letter telling them that Bernie’s plan would actually SAVE Americans $5.08 trillion. Yes, SAVE.

Side note: I find it interesting that politicians speak of “populism” as though it were a dirty worth. Is a democracy not a “populist” notion to begin with? I’d very much LIKE to see a politician who attempts to ACTUALLY appeal to the People, and do good for the People, over a bunch of liars who promise one thing but always do what’s best for their corporate backers… 

And why would the WSJ want to rock the boat? Just come up with a completely sensationalist number and your corporate/banker readers can harumph a few times in indignation and be done with it (FFS, they have a paywall so that the riff-raff of the street won’t be able to read their crap).

Here’s the gist of Bernie’s plan:

Minimum Wage

American minimum wage would rise to $15 per hour, to the benefit of 62 MILLION workers. Would this cause some job loss? Unfortunately, yes, and it would encourage companies to mechanize- depending on just how large the margin of profit the business makes, of course, because it would only be detrimental to small businesses with low margins while corporates could easily foot the bill without batting an eye.

It’s unfortunate that one cannot simply force corporates to pay a minimum wage while leaving out small businesses.

Besides, with 93 million Americans already having given up on looking for work, perhaps the best solution would be for all the “riff-raff” to work at $1 an hour? Or how about working free of charge for “experience” in internships?

Working for peanuts is not the solution, and if the system benefits only the very richest by continuously increasing the wealth gap… then what is the point of the system? I for one do NOT intend to one day find myself downsized into a tiny cardboard box.

Employment VS The Prison State

Bernie intends to tackle the employment aspect by enacting a 5.5 billion dollar jobs program, estimated to create employment for a million young jobless. This relatively small sum will be procured by reducing the 200 billion bucks that ALREADY get spent on prisons and “public safety”. Yes, let’s spend a LITTLE money on SAVING those unemployed Americans… rather than immediately putting them into really expensive boxes lined with steel bars. Sweden for one has already successfully created such a system.

Housing
Two thirds of Americans below the age of 35 own a home; that’s the lowest percentage EVER tabulated since the census bureau started tracking it more than three decades ago.

The widening income gap is largely to blame, as fewer Americans can afford to buy- while those few who can often buy several in order to rent to the have-nots.

As homes accumulate in the hands of the few, particularly the corporates that buy up homes and the foreign buyers who buy “investment” properties and let them sit empty, rental prices rise…

Bernie wants to solve this by increasing the number of middle-income people who can actually afford to buy a house; he will fund this by raising corporate taxes, and ensure that these buggers don’t get away with their stolen loot quite so easily. A tax on stock trades will also hurt the wealthy traders… for the benefit of the many.

Healthcare

Americans ALREADY pay more than than every other single-payer healthcare system in the world.

The Journal correctly puts the additional federal spending for health care under HR 676 (a single payer health plan) at $15 trillion over ten years. It neglects to add, however, that by spending these vast sums, we would, as a country, save nearly $5 trillion over ten years in reduced administrative waste, lower pharmaceutical and device prices, and by lowering the rate of medical inflation…

The economic benefits from Senator Sander’s proposal would be even greater than these static estimates suggest because a single-payer plan would create dynamic gains by freeing American businesses to compete without the burden of an inefficient and wasteful health insurance system…

Because of the nearly $10 trillion in savings, it is possible to fund over $4.5 trillion in additional services while still reducing national health care spending by over $5 trillion.

– Gerald Friedman, originally cited by the WSJ

Feel the… bern, WSJ. Reduce inefficiencies? Free businesses up to actually engage in competition? Sounding less and less like socialism to me…

Any plan that would reduce it by 5.08 trillion bucks according to a leading economist while also offering better healthcare sounds good in my book… and the status quot ALREADY wastes trillions in needless wars- it’s time to INVEST that moolah in America and on Americans. ‘Nuff said.

Sources: Crooksandliars, USuncut, Huffington Post

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