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Published On: Mon, Sep 21st, 2015

Bernie Sanders: Democrats ‘last chance’ for socialism as Robert Reich, Salon and others defend spending

The Wall Street Journal was under attack for calculating the Bernie Sanders spending plan to be a $18 trillion price tag. Bill Moyers’ website opens that “both Republicans and Hillary Clinton are happy the Journal is doing their work for them.”

Calling Sanders a socialist is not an insult, but recognition of a lifetime of promoting redistribution of wealth and turning more services over to the officials in Washington DC. In fact, while pointing to the Sanders rise and Clinton fall in the polls, Salon notes that “Beneath the joy, there was the darker sense that Sanders might represent the last chance for progressive politics in America. When this feeling goes away, it doesn’t come back.” (Emphasis added, The Dispatch)

Former Clinton aide Robert Reich defended the Sanders $18 trillion plan, joining the Moyers article pushing for a single-payer health care system: well above-and-beyond Obamacare, by expanding Medicare to everyone.

photo/ donkeyhotey

photo/ donkeyhotey

“This would be cheaper than relying on our current system of for-private health insurers,” Reich says of the $15 trillion estimate for the conversion, before stating that other ‘spending’ is actually “investments in the nation’s future productivity”- he then attacked Rupert Murdoch.

“The government is just a device that we use to provide certain services that are better handled collectively than individually. If the government can provide equivalent service at lower prices, then the gross dollar amount involved doesn’t matter,” stated the Moyers article.

“Now the big issue, I admit, is whether the government can provide equivalent service at lower prices. For the vast majority of consumer goods and services, it can’t. That’s why we buy our phones and computers from private companies like Apple, not from government agencies.”

The philosophical core principle has been one of debate and division for years, especially under the Obama administration. Sanders’ openness about his socialist plan has garnered him a successful rise in the polls and big audiences for speeches.

Salon notes of Sanders supporters and the message:

When you hear progressives laud Sanders’ “authenticity,” it goes deeper than his political record. The judgment takes aesthetics into account—with his guileless manner, and the way his face defaults into a dogged, curmudgeonly glare, you get the sense that it would never occur to him to tell anything but the truth. Just like it would never occur to him to change his positions on wealth inequality over three decades, or to accept money from super PACs, or to shy away from the word “socialist.”

It boils down to one critical factor—unlike every other candidate, in either party, Sanders doesn’t seem to care if he loses. While the rest of the field prioritizes victory, he’ll stay loyal to his favorite theme, even at the cost of defeat.

Which makes him a terrifying outsider in the Democratic primaries. There’s no good way to attack Sanders personally; how do you impugn a man whose idiosyncrasies are his strength, and who, as far as progressives are concerned, has rarely taken a false ideological step?

 

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About the Author

- Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON

Displaying 14 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich Are Confused by Economics. And Government. And Reality | Western Free Press says:

    […] Reich thinks uber-failed ObamaCare wasn’t huge-government enough – and demands a government-only single-payer system. He robustly defends Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT)’ $18 trillion (at least) in […]

  2. Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich Are Confused by Economics. And Government. And Reality says:

    […] Reich thinks uber-failed ObamaCare wasn’t huge-government enough – anddemands a government-only single-payer system. He robustly defends Senator Sanders’ $18 trillion (at least) in new spending. (Our entire […]

  3. Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich Are Confused by Economics. And Government. And Reality - Stop Net Regulation says:

    […] Reich thinks uber-failed ObamaCare wasn’t huge-government enough – and demands a government-only single-payer system. He robustly defends Senator Sanders’ $18 trillion (at least) in new spending. (Our entire […]

  4. Less Government: Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich Are Confused by Economics. And Government. And Reality says:

    […] Reich thinks uber-failed ObamaCare wasn’t huge-government enough – and demands a government-only single-payer system. He robustly defends Senator Sanders’ $18 trillion (at least) in new spending. (Our entire […]

  5. Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich Are Confused by Economics. And Government. And Reality says:

    […] Reich thinks uber-failed ObamaCare wasn’t huge-government enough – and demands a government-only single-payer system. He robustly defends Senator Sanders’ $18 trillion (at least) in new spending. (Our entire […]

  6. DB says:

    I think it’s a myth that businesses can provide services better than the government. There are all sorts of services, including various kinds of insurance and banking and repair offerings that the various governments could sell to its citizens and not only do the job better without cheating people but make money that could be used to run other parts of the government and reduce taxes. They would not be paying big CEO salaries and huge perks to CEOs and other top executives. I’m not saying that private businesses should go away, but they could compete with governments for customers. This would lower the price of services and also make the government more likely to come up with better consumer safeguards instead of often just rubberstamping whatever businesses want. As for Bernie Sanders, he is probably our last hope for changing what has become a grossly unfair system.

    • Ray says:

      Most of the unfairness in the system is the government picking winners and losers!

      No greater example is the post office and Amtrak which are broke, but propped up by the government to keep their monopoly in place. They are not capable of running a “business” properly because there is no accountability. If there are problems, the tax payers just have to pay more.

      Is Medicare or Medicaid better than private insurance?

      What about the HUGE perks for politicians and federal employees? Why did they exempt themselves from Obamacare is the government can do things so much better?

      Bernie wants more of this and we need less of this!

  7. Barbara Dayan says:

    Bernie Sanders: “America Needs A Political Revolution!”

    CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asks presidential candidate Bernie Sanders if he is surprised he is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders said, “We are doing well because of the issues we are talking about. Something is wrong in this country when the middle-class continues to disappear, almost all new income and wealth goes to the top 1%; when millions of families cannot afford to send their kids to college. We need a political revolution that says that the billionaire class can’t have it all, that we need a Congress and a government that represents all of us and not just large campaign contributors. That is what is resonating with the American people,” Sanders said.

    Watch the entire CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer on YouTube:
    https://youtu.be/-H_VJCFcJcY

  8. Barbara Dayan says:

    Bernie Sanders Passionate Defense of Gay Soldiers in 1995!

    In 1995, on the Senate floor, Bernie Sanders said:

    “I heard the gentleman say something a moment ago about putting homos in the military… was the gentleman talking about the thousands of men and women who have put their lives on the line fighting countless wars, defending this country… YOU HAVE INSULTED THOUSANDS of men and women who put their lives on the line!” Sanders said.

    Contrast that strong defense of Gay soldiers with Hilary Clinton in 2004 talking about same-sex marriage: “I believe marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman, a fundamental bedrock principle that it exists between a man and a woman, going back into the midst of history.”

    Watch Bernie Sanders defend Gay Soldiers during Bill Clinton Admin. on Youtube:https://youtu.be/MAFlQ6fU4GM

  9. Barbara Dayan says:

    Bernie Sanders: Wall Street Greed, High Drug Prices Killing Americans!

    Bernie Sanders has a heated discussion about high drug prices and Universal Health Care. “We spend far more per capita on health care than do people in any other country. Thirty million people today have zero health insurance and many more are under-insured. How do we create Universal Health Care for every man, woman and child, and do it in a cost effective way? Other countries do it, the United States of America can do it. The private insurance companies don’t like this idea. We’re going to put them out of business. And the drug companies that are ripping off the American people and charging us the highest prices in the world don’t like the idea. Tough luck! The greed of the pharmaceutical industry is killing Americans,” Sanders said.

    Watch the entire CBS This Morning Interview On YouTube:
    https://youtu.be/lfNpWEqF7-g

  10. Brandon Jones says:

    The Nordic model?

    Norway is propped up by BIG oil money. Like number 5 in the world for per capita oil production. (Source)

    These Scandanavian states aren’t that much different than the current US – “capitalist” United States spends roughly 40% of the national GDP compared to “socialist” Norway spending is equal to roughly 46% of the national GDP. (Source)

    The other countries are worse off than Norway, in fact, Denmark, Sweden and Finland would be considered among the POOREST of the US States with lower gross and disposable incomes Sources: http://www.worldsalaries.org/

    CATO analyzed the spending and there is no correlation with this spending EVER helping the poor (Source)

    Suicide rates are worse (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/suiciderate.html)

    http://frontpagemag.com/2011/steven-plaut/does-scandinavian-socialism-work/

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/a_toast_to_socialist_countries.html

    I’m sure we can argue over data, but the Sanders plan offers no guarantees and is NOT the land of unicorns and rainbows his supporters would have us believe.

  11. chollie says:

    Sanders’ form of socialism is not the Marxist variety. He is following a Social Welfare or Nordic model.

  12. GPM says:

    I think Bernie Sanders is perhaps not so much Democrats’ “last chance for socialism” as he is the 1 percent’s last chance to avoid the pitchforks. JMHO

  13. Brett Vroman says:

    Author intentionally uses the word socialism without making it clear that Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialism is not the same “socialism” that scares people historically.

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