Here are just 19 of the insane policy proposals and radical ideas Bernie Sanders would champion as president.
With a win in New Hampshire, a maybe-win in Iowa last week, and a month-long surge into second place nationally, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is now in strong position to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. It’s been a long road for the curmudgeonly man from Vermont, who spent years toiling on the fringes of official Washington. Of all things, the event that ultimately launched him into the Democratic Party’s mainstream turned out to be a binary 2016 primary contest with Hillary Clinton, a match-up in which the contrast ultimately benefited him more than her.
So, here we are, in February 2020, and a self-identified democratic socialist appears poised to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. That could easily change, and the party establishment will work hard to ensure it does, but let us not take for granted how stunning it is that a man as radically leftist as Sanders is the likely nominee as primary season heats up.
As Sanders and his supporters boast, he is not a normal Democrat candidate. He is the most radical member of the Senate. His platform would make him the furthest left major party nominee in the modern era.
Sanders is a European-style ideologue who seeks to radically transform the government and the economy, dismantling the system of free enterprise, and he’s not bashful about that. To be sure, his success has pushed other candidates left on issues such as health care and higher education, but Sanders still stands as the most radical candidate, which makes him the most appealing to many of his supporters.
As Sanders surges in the nominating contest, the sheer extremism of his platform should not be normalized simply because he’s earning a decent slice of the Democratic primary vote. It’s in that spirit we present this list, which conveys the radicalism on which Sanders has built his career and staked his campaign.
1. $34 Trillion Socialized Health Insurance OverhaulSanders would ban private insurance and implement single-payer government health care. Under his Medicare for All proposal, “federal spending on health care would still increase by 10 percent of G.D.P., or more than triple what the government spends on the military,” according to The New York Times.
2. Mass Bailout of Student Loan DebtThe senator would bail out student loan debt for “45 million Americans,” totaling “about 1.6 trillion,” according to his campaign website.
3. Making Higher Education ‘Tuition Free’
As with many of his policy proposals, Sanders’ oversimplified justification for providing free college is: Countries in Europe offer it for free, why can’t the United States? Unlike in Europe, however, tuition is precisely what made the United States the top country in which to study, and the reason students from all over the world flock to the United States for education.
Additionally, the costs of state-run universities in Europe have not ballooned to pay for the ever-expanded services American universities now must offer to remain competitive (luxurious gyms with lazy rivers, behemoth athletic departments, and gourmet dining halls). In 2016, Sanders’ opponent Hillary Clinton knocked his free tuition plan because it relied on state governors, including Republican governors who often cut spending, to put in state money.
4. Implementing ‘National Rent Control’
Sanders’ campaign has pledged to spend $2.5 trillion to build 10 million government housing units. He also wants the federal government to further invade every state’s housing laws and local economy by enforcing a national “rent control standard.” He proposes using the federal government to wage war against gentrification and zoning laws.
5. Instituting a Moratorium on Deportations
Sanders’ immigration plan includes ending deportations of illegal immigrants and offering citizenship to the 11 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States.
6. Effectively Abolishing ICE and CBP
Sanders wants to eliminate the federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, that protect our country’s sovereign borders and protect U.S. citizens from illegal immigrants who commit acts of violence and organized crime all over the United States.
7. Enacting a Green New DealSanders is a supporter of Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., Green New Deal, which calls for the banning of fossil fuel energy production, such as oil and gas, which is the lifeblood of American industry. The initial version of the Green New Deal also called for banning cars, meat, and air travel, while also promising to provide all Americans education, healthy food, housing, and government-guaranteed jobs. Sanders has admitted his climate plan would be an “expensive” $16.3 trillion.
8. Approaching Abortion as Population Control
