The Wall Street Journal says Bernie Sanders' domestic policy plan would cost $18 trillion over ten years. Is this valid?It depends on how you search for at it. First,there's a set of proposals that the Journal estimates would cost about $3.4 trillion. That's not pocket change, but it's about as much as Jeb Bush's tax slash. The huge difference is that Jeb's tax cuts mostly benefit the wealthy, and while Bernie's proposals mostly benefit the poor and the middle course. You can decide for yourself which you prefer.
Then there's the $15 trillion price tag for universal health care. Is this a fair estimate? It's probably in the ballpark. Private health insurance accounted for about $1 trillion in spending last year,and assuming reasonable growth that will probably advance to around $15 trillion over the course of a decade.
But here's the thing: this is money we already spend. good now, employers and workers pay insurance companies $1 trillion for health care. Under Bernie's plan, or we'd instead pay that money to the federal government. Generally speaking,this would be invisible to most of us. Behind the scenes, our dollars would flow to a different place, and that's about it.
So the Sanders plan wouldn't actually take money out of our pockets. It's a wash. It needs to be evaluated instead on all the usual metrics. Would the government finish a better job of holding down costs? Would government control distort market signals? Would innovation suffer? Would most of us absorb more choice in health care providers? Would more people be covered? Etc.
Bottom line: You should think of the Sanders plan as costing about $3.4 trillion. You may or may not like the thought of universal health care,but it wouldn't absorb much impact on how much money you actually take domestic each week.
Source: motherjones.com