https://issuesinsights.com/2019/08/23/
One of the four leading Democrats running for president, Bernie Sanders announced this week that, if elected, he’ll spend $16.3 trillion over the next decade to decarbonize the economy. That’s a big number. But it’s only one of Sanders’ “bold” plans that, when added up, would more than double the size of the federal government.
The details of Sanders’ “Green New Deal” aren’t particularly important. Suffice it to say, the plan is stuffed to the brim with pie-in-the-sky assumptions and massive new government programs. The Democratic senator wants to spend $681 billion on a “vehicle trade-in program,” another $407 billion to replace school buses, $216 billion to replace every truck. That’s all on just one page of his Green New Deal plan.
All told, he wants to dump more than $16 trillion over 10 years on these and other boondoggles.
Incredible as it might seem, the Green New Deal isn’t even the biggest ticket item on Sanders’ agenda. That trophy goes to his Medicare for All plan, which clocks in at $32.6 trillion (which is a decidedly lowball estimate).
Then there’s Sanders’ plan for free college — $480 billion over the next decade — and canceling all outstanding college student loan debt. That adds up to another $2 trillion hit to taxpayers.
Sanders also proposes guaranteed government jobs. Cost estimates for this range from $32 billion a year to $543 billion a year. Of the four studies that have looked into it, the average cost works out to $3.5 trillion over 10 years.
Sanders still isn’t done. He also wants to expand Social Security benefits with a plan that would cost taxpayers $1.8 trillion over a decade.