Preacher
Gold Member
No, Bernie Sanders is not going to bankrupt America to the tune of $18 trillion
while Sanders does want to spend significant amounts of money, almost all of it is on things we’re already paying for; he just wants to change how we pay for them. In some ways it’s by spreading out a cost currently borne by a limited number of people to all taxpayers. His plan for free public college would do this: right now, it’s paid for by students and their families, while under Sanders’ plan we’d all pay for it in the same way we all pay for parks or the military or food safety.
OH NOES! How horrible! We all pay for food safety and military but it would be EVIL to all pay to make a smarter population!
But health care is nevertheless a good place to examine why these big numbers can be so misleading. At the moment, total health care spending in the United States runs over $3 trillion a year; according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, over the next decade (from 2015-2024), America will spend a total of $42 trillion on health care. This is money that you and I and everyone else spends. We spend it in a variety of ways: through our health-insurance premiums, through the reduced salaries we get if our employers pick up part or all of the cost of those premiums, through our co-pays and deductibles, and through our taxes that fund Medicare, Medicaid, ACA subsidies, and the VA health care system. We’re already paying about $10,000 a year per capita for health care.
So let’s say that Bernie Sanders became president and passed a single-payer health care system of some sort. And let’s say that it did indeed cost $15 trillion over 10 years. Would that be $15 trillion in new money we’d be spending? No, it would be money that we’re already spending on health care, but now it would go through government. If I told you I could cut your health insurance premiums by $1,000 and increase your taxes by $1,000, you wouldn’t have lost $1,000. You’d be in the same place you are now.
Wait you mean I wouldn't have to spend so much on healthcare!? OH GOD! The sky is falling!
There’s something else to keep in mind: every single-payer system in the world, and there are many of them of varying flavors, is cheaper than the American health care system. Every single one. So whatever you might say about Sanders’ advocacy for a single-payer system, you can’t say it represents some kind of profligate, free-spending idea that would cost us all terrible amounts of money.
But hey! WE NEEDS OUR FREEDUMBS! WE NEED OUR FREEDUMBS TO PAY THOUSANDS IN HEALTHCARE COSTS! FREEDUMB FREEDUMB! Oh wait...that's only if you are rich....for the rest of us it would be like I saw the other day....A LINE HUNDREDS DEEP waiting in the cold outside for free dental care because they can't afford it!
For instance, Sanders wants to spend $1 trillion over 10 years on infrastructure. That’s a lot of money, but it’s significantly less than experts say we need to repair all of our crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, and so on. And infrastructure spending creates immediate jobs and has economic benefits that persist over time, which we’d also have to take into account in deciding whether it’s a good idea. But just saying, “$1 trillion is a lot of money!” doesn’t tell you whether or not we should do it.
Well isn't that something you republicans can agree to? More jobs? Hmmm? Or is that evil because the government would be replacing and fixing things we already pay for but are costing an arm and a leg every year to keep up and its just not enough!
Facts are folks republicans are FINE with government as long as its paying for certain things
1.WAR!
2.AIDE to Israel
That's about it.
while Sanders does want to spend significant amounts of money, almost all of it is on things we’re already paying for; he just wants to change how we pay for them. In some ways it’s by spreading out a cost currently borne by a limited number of people to all taxpayers. His plan for free public college would do this: right now, it’s paid for by students and their families, while under Sanders’ plan we’d all pay for it in the same way we all pay for parks or the military or food safety.
OH NOES! How horrible! We all pay for food safety and military but it would be EVIL to all pay to make a smarter population!
But health care is nevertheless a good place to examine why these big numbers can be so misleading. At the moment, total health care spending in the United States runs over $3 trillion a year; according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, over the next decade (from 2015-2024), America will spend a total of $42 trillion on health care. This is money that you and I and everyone else spends. We spend it in a variety of ways: through our health-insurance premiums, through the reduced salaries we get if our employers pick up part or all of the cost of those premiums, through our co-pays and deductibles, and through our taxes that fund Medicare, Medicaid, ACA subsidies, and the VA health care system. We’re already paying about $10,000 a year per capita for health care.
So let’s say that Bernie Sanders became president and passed a single-payer health care system of some sort. And let’s say that it did indeed cost $15 trillion over 10 years. Would that be $15 trillion in new money we’d be spending? No, it would be money that we’re already spending on health care, but now it would go through government. If I told you I could cut your health insurance premiums by $1,000 and increase your taxes by $1,000, you wouldn’t have lost $1,000. You’d be in the same place you are now.
Wait you mean I wouldn't have to spend so much on healthcare!? OH GOD! The sky is falling!
There’s something else to keep in mind: every single-payer system in the world, and there are many of them of varying flavors, is cheaper than the American health care system. Every single one. So whatever you might say about Sanders’ advocacy for a single-payer system, you can’t say it represents some kind of profligate, free-spending idea that would cost us all terrible amounts of money.
But hey! WE NEEDS OUR FREEDUMBS! WE NEED OUR FREEDUMBS TO PAY THOUSANDS IN HEALTHCARE COSTS! FREEDUMB FREEDUMB! Oh wait...that's only if you are rich....for the rest of us it would be like I saw the other day....A LINE HUNDREDS DEEP waiting in the cold outside for free dental care because they can't afford it!
For instance, Sanders wants to spend $1 trillion over 10 years on infrastructure. That’s a lot of money, but it’s significantly less than experts say we need to repair all of our crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, and so on. And infrastructure spending creates immediate jobs and has economic benefits that persist over time, which we’d also have to take into account in deciding whether it’s a good idea. But just saying, “$1 trillion is a lot of money!” doesn’t tell you whether or not we should do it.
Well isn't that something you republicans can agree to? More jobs? Hmmm? Or is that evil because the government would be replacing and fixing things we already pay for but are costing an arm and a leg every year to keep up and its just not enough!
Facts are folks republicans are FINE with government as long as its paying for certain things
1.WAR!
2.AIDE to Israel
That's about it.
