The proposed spending programs by Sen. Bernie Sanders would at least double federal spending over the next decade, CNN is reporting.
The news network noted the programs being pushed in the presidential campaign by the Vermont independent represent an increase in government cost and size unprecedented since World War II. CNN attributes the information to estimates from Sanders’ website and experts’ projections
It said the plans would increase spending as a share of the economy far greater than President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal or the Great Society under President Lyndon Johnson.
Projections for Sanders’ single-payer healthcare plan are about $30 trillion or more over the next decade. And his “Green New Deal” plus the cancellation of all student debts and a guaranteed federal jobs program could be more than his single-payer healthcare plan, CNN reported.
"On the spending side, ... this is far more radical than all previous presidencies, on either the right or the left," Larry Summers, former chief White House economic adviser to Barack Obama said. "The Sanders spending increase is roughly 2.5 times the size of the New Deal and the estimated fiscal impact of George McGovern's campaign proposals.
And Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said "We are literally talking about increases in government spending that would double the size of government as a share of gross domestic product."
Despite the projections, Sanders has faced almost no questions from other candidates or the media about but how he would finance the massive increase, CNN said.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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