Bernie: No, I won’t explain how I’ll pay for everything for everyone

[Valin]

Legal Insurrection:

Fuzzy Slippers

Thursday, January 14, 2016

 

Bernie Sanders’ “Democrat socialist” policies sound good and have a lot of popular support among certain demographics, but when pressed on how he would pay for all the free stuff he’s promising, he’s a bit nonplussed. Pesky details like that just don’t interest him; it’s all about the utopian ideal in his dreamy little head, not about reality.

 

For example, although he pledged to release his plan for paying for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, he’s now decided that might be a mistake and is considering breaking that particular pledge.

 

CNN reports:

 

Bernie Sanders could break his pledge to release details on how he would pay for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, according to a top aide.

 

His campaign released details Wednesday of how Sanders will pay his $1 trillion dollar infrastructure plan and his $75-billion-a-year plan to make public college and universities tuition-free. But noticeably absent was his plan to pay for Medicare for all, a price tag that some estimates put at $15 trillion.

 

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, isn’t saying when those numbers will be released.

 

“I don’t have a date for that,” he said earlier this week. “Not necessarily before the caucuses.”

 

Weaver stood by his comments on Wednesday, stating that the campaign does not yet have a date for when to release the Medicare-for-all plan. He added that Sanders’ health care plan would be paid for “progressively,” similar to the way his previous Medicare-for-all proposals have been paid for.

 

 

Paid for “progressively”? The track record on that is typically “not at all” and/or at huge cost to the already struggling middle classes. If “progressively” is the “plan” to pay for his agenda, it’s no wonder Sanders may not release it ahead of the Iowa caucuses . . . even though he had stated earlier that he would do so.

 

(Snip)

 

(Snip)

 

Forward to 3:00

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It Will Be Paid For.

 

That Is All The People Need To Know

 

[clearvision]

Well how could he explain since it can't all be paid for.

[Valin]

Well how could he explain since it can't all be paid for.

 

 

Once again my friend you have forgotten the awesome power of Pixie Dust!

[Draggingtree]

The Economics of "Free Stuff"

FEBRUARY 22, 2016 Jonathan Newman

The perennial promises of free stuff from political candidates are front and center again now that we are ensnared in another US election cycle. The knee-jerk response from some economists and libertarians is “TANSTAAFL!” And of course it’s true that There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, because somebody must bear the costs of the supposedly “free” stuff. Nothing is free because every action has an opportunity cost.

 

Especially when the government is involved in doling out the gifts, all it means is that it was bought with money taken from others. Or, sometimes, the money is taken from the person receiving the gift, who thinkshe’s gotten something for nothing. (This is a sleight-of-hand political trick that has fooled many for centuries.)

But what if we interpret “free” in a more colloquial sense? Is it still preferable for the government to give away free stuff? Do unhampered markets provide for free stuff.

Two Definitions of “Free”

https://mises.org/library/economics-free-stuff

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Lets Assume next Nov. the choice we have is Hillary/Bernie or Donald Trump. shudder For the very 1st time since I could vote, I got No One To vote for...I got nobody.

[Draggingtree]

@Draggingtree

 

Lets Assume next Nov. the choice we have is Hillary/Bernie or Donald Trump. shudder For the very 1st time since I could vote, I got No One To vote for...I got nobody.

Well sir lots of us won't have a choice but to hold our nose and pull the lever.

[Draggingtree]

Weimar America

BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON FEBRUARY 21, 2016

2016 is a pivotal year in which accustomed referents of a stable West are now disappearing. We seem to be living in a chaotic age, akin to the mid-1930s, of cynicism and skepticism. Government, religion, and popular culture are corrupt and irrelevant—and the world order of the last 70 years has all but collapsed.

 

Neither the president nor his would-be successors talk much about the fact that we are now nearing $20 trillion in debt—in an ossified economy of near-zero interest rates, little if any GDP growth, and record numbers of able-bodied but non-working adults. (The most frequent complaint I hear in my hometown is that the government lags behind in their cost-of-living raises in Social Security disability payments.)

 

No one can figure out how and why America’s youth have borrowed a collective $1 trillion for college tuition, and yet received so little education and skills in the bargain.

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/weimar-america/

[Pepper]

 

New scene.

Kramer, Newman and a 'salesman' are at the back of a van in an alley.

Salesman: All right, I got everything here. I got the Cyclone F series, Hydra

Jet Flow, Stockholm Superstream, you name it.

Jerry: What do you recommend?

Salesman: What are you looking for?

Kramer: Power, man. Power.

Newman: Like Silkwood.

Kramer: That's for radiation.

Newman: That's right.

Kramer (pointing to the largest one): Now, what is this?

Salesman: That's the Commando 450, I don't sell that one. What about thi-

Kramer: Well that's what we want, the Commando 450.

Salesman, Nah, believe me. It's only used in the circus. For elephants.

Newman: We'll pay anything. We've got the (hands a wad of money to Kramer)

What about Jerry?

Kramer: He couldn't handle that, he's delicate.