Sanders Says He Does Not Have a Price Tag for All of His ‘Free’ Plans

Susan Jones

by Susan Jones: Free health care, free college education, cancellation of student debt and now free, universal child care: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told CBS's "60 Minutes" that his ideas, once described as "radical," are now "mainstream."
It's not good enough to complain, oh, I cannot afford my healthcare; I can't afford child care; I can't afford to send my kid to college; I'm paying half my income in rent.

You know, if you're not happy about that, you got to be involved in the political process. Only millions of people standing up for justice can bring about the kind of change that this country requires.

And I believe that has got to happen.Sanders conceded that he is advocating "expensive propositions." His Medicare for All plan would cost $30 trillion, but what about all the other programs on top of that?

"Do you have a price tag for all of these things?" host Anderson Cooper asked Sanders:

"No, I don't," Sanders said. "You mentioned making public colleges and universities tuition-free and cancelling all student debt. That's correct. That's what I want to do. We pay for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation."

"But you say you don't know what the total price is, but you know how it's going to be paid for. How do you know it's going to be paid for if you don't know how much the price is?" Cooper asked the candidate.

"Well, you know, I can't rattle off to you every nickel and every dime. But we have accounted for it. You talked about Medicare for All. We have options out there that will pay for it."

Sanders would raise taxes primarily on the wealthy and corporations, but his plan also includes a middle-class tax hike to finance Medicare for All.

At the end of his interview with Anderson Cooper, Sanders unveiled a new plan that would guarantee free child care and pre-kindergarten to every child in the country from infancy to age 4.

"What we are calling for is universal child care," Sanders said.

"How are you going to pay for this?" Anderson Cooper asked him.

"We have a tax on wealth to pay for that," Sander said. "It's taxes on billionaires," he said.

"You know, I get a little bit tired of hearing my opponents saying, gee, how are you going to pay for a program that impacts and helps children or working-class families or middle-class families. How are you going to pay for that?

"And yet, where are people saying, how are you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending? How are you going to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the one percent, the large corporations, which is what Trump did.

"When you help the billionaires and you help Wall Street -- hey, of course we can pay for it. That's what America's supposed to be about. Well, I disagree," Sanders said.
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Susan Jones (@SJonesCNS) writes for CNSNews a division of the Media Research Center, a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization.

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