Berning bridges
Surprise Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders is deluding his followers and dragging the party into dangerous territory by vowing to fight for a complete government takeover of health insurance. Sanders is rallying the Democratic left wing — Tuesday,a new poll put him up a staggering 27 points in New Hampshire — by bludgeoning Hillary Clinton for taking the far more realistic approach of trying to improve Obamacare rather than waste presidential energy in futile pursuit of a radical dream.
Clinton is paying for her pragmatism because Sanders’ fired-up believers have little use for the true facts of governing. He who is ideologically pure rides the wave; she who gives a thought to moving on a broad range of issues in the White House is stuck in an absurdly close contest.
Sanders is pandering to the liberal base with a fiscally irresponsible, political non-starter, much as Donald Trump is doing by declaring that he can deport all undocumented immigrants — and let the “right ones” back in. History makes clear Sanders’ epic folly. Even with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, getting the Affordable Care Act through the House and Senate consumed essentially the entire second year of President Obama’s presidency, required a controversial parliamentary maneuver for enactment and established unending warfare with Republicans.
Why? As citizens of an ideologically complicated country, many Americans are happy with workplace health coverage — and many vehemently oppose greater government involvement in a major portion of the U.S. economy. Democrats who backed offering a public health-care plan as one among a menu of options decisively lost the fight, including to members of their own party.
Now Sanders is urging followers once more into the breach with a “Medicare for All” plan that would provide coverage for everything except ringworm treatment for the family dog: doctors’ visits, hospital stays, long-term and hospice care, vision, dental, mental health and prescription drugs. No premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays. To foot an estimated $1.4 trillion annual cost — other estimates put it higher — Sanders would raise marginal income tax rates on top earners from 39.6% to 43%; add a new bracket taxing 52% of every dollar above $10 million; hike taxes on capital gains, dividends and inheritance taxes; and impose a a 2.2% tax on household incomes and a 6.2% tax on employers — one that would surely reduce already stagnant wages.
After voting dozens of times to repeal Obamacare, Republicans finally got a doomed bill to the President’s desk this year.
The idea that a high-tax, supercharged version is politically plausible? Ridiculous. The idea that it’s logistically possible? Absurd. The idea that it’s fiscally responsible? Clinically insane.