Norah O'Donnell Confronts Bernie Sanders on Campaign Promises: 'You Don't Know How Much....

[George II]

Norah O’Donnell Confronts Bernie Sanders on Campaign Promises: ‘You Don’t Know How Much Your Plan Costs?’

CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell confronted Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders over the cost of his ambitious agenda, and was astonished when Sanders told her “nobody knows” what his programs will cost.

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“Your agenda has promised free healthcare for everybody, free college tuition, and to pay off people’s college loans,” O’Donnell said, and asked “The price tag for that is estimated to be $60 trillion dollars over 10 years, correct?”

“You don’t know how much your plan costs?” O’Donnell interrupted.

“You don’t know, nobody knows, this is impossible,” Sanders said, as O’Donnell cut him off again.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/norah-odonnell-confronts-bernie-sanders-on-campaign-promises-you-dont-know-how-much-your-plan-costs/

[Cha]

1. KR.. shine the Light!

[emmaverybo]

2. Damn reckless and then proud if it. No accountability to voters who want to know what the costs run

and how he will pay for them. Would this be his answer to congress? How does he expect to get any plan off the ground if he can’t even estimate its costs. We have record high deficits and a hell of a lot of need in this country so of course taxpayers want a better idea of what Sanders will be asking us all to invest. .

[mcar]

3. Kick

[NurseJackie]

4. Good! I'm so fucking tired of empty and unfunded promises.

We don't elect kings and dictators. That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works!

[DanTex]

5. The disdain that many in the media have for Bernie is palpable.

Bernie's making the obvious point that nobody knows exactly what health care inflation is going to be the next decade. And the American people are paying that much, Single Payer or no. With M4A, the amount will be less, due to the savings, efficiency, and bargaining power.

Something a 12 year old can understand.

But the media is competing to see who can "score a point."

[George II]

6. No, that is NOT what he said! He said nobody knows (including HIM) how much his plan will cost.

How can anyone vote for a "plan" without knowing all the details or cost?

[DanTex]

7. It's not complicated. And it's exactly what he said.

The amount his plan costs will depend on how much health care costs will grow over the next decade. Which nobody knows. There are forecasts, sure, but they differ, because, again, nobody can say exactly. It will be lower with M4A, that we can say.

He's being truthful, which voters appreciate, even though media figures are more interested in trying to score points.

[George II]

9. If no one knows how much it will cost, how do people know that it'll be cheaper. He could give us..

...the projected cost per year - like 2021, 2022, 2023, etc. Everyone knows that plans change over time, but going into it he can't even tell us.

If I were to say our current system is lower, surely I'd be bombarded with requests to explain. Why doesn't he?

[DanTex]

10. Good question.

Because single payer reduces administrative overhead. It is more efficient. It also has more bargaining power with drug companies and healthcare providers which results in lower prices.

There are a lot of studies that give projected costs for year. But they don't all give the same number. None of them "know", they are just estimates. Which is exactly what Bernie said. The journalist just interrupted and pretended not to understand the obvious so she could get her "score" and Bernie-haters would post it on twitter.

[Cha]

8. It's insulting to submit "plans" without them

[Gothmog]

11. CNN-Esitimated cost of sanders programs-$60 trillion

Link to tweet

Sanders' plan, though all of its costs cannot be precisely quantified, would increase government spending as a share of the economy far more than the New Deal under President Franklin Roosevelt, the Great Society under Lyndon Johnson or the agenda proposed by any recent Democratic presidential nominee, including liberal George McGovern in 1972, according to a historical analysis shared with CNN by Larry Summers, the former chief White House economic adviser for Barack Obama and treasury secretary for Bill Clinton.

Sanders' plan would also increase the size of government far more than any modern Republican president, including Ronald Reagan, has sought to cut it, Summers' analysis concluded.

"On the spending side, ... this is far more radical than all previous presidencies, on either the right or the left," Summers said in an interview. "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. This is six times as large of a growth of government than any of the Ronald Reagan dismemberments. We are in a kind of new era of radical proposal."

Exact cost projections on all of Sanders' proposals aren't available, in part because he hasn't fully fleshed out some of the ideas he's embraced (such as universal pre-K and child care). But a wide variety of estimates put the likely cost of the single-payer health care plan he has endorsed around $30 trillion or more over the next decade. Depending on the estimates used, including projections from his own campaign, the other elements of the Sanders agenda -- ranging from his "Green New Deal" to the cancellation of all student debt to a guaranteed federal jobs program that has received almost no scrutiny -- could cost about as much, or even more than, the single-payer plan. That would potentially bring his 10-year total for new spending to around $60 trillion, or more.

[George II]

12. That could be why they're not saying how much it will cost.

[Gothmog]

13. Sanders legislative agenda would have no way of being passed even if elected. Here's why:

Link to tweet

[oasis]

14. If Bernie is our nominee will he dodge the Sunday TV circuit to avoid

explaining to the American voter how he's he'll to pay for his proposals?