It is true that I would invest $1 trillion into rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure
By Sen. Bernie Sanders
The Wall Street Journal, Letters, Sept. 17, 2015
Your article “Price Tag of Sanders Proposals: $18 Trillion” (page one, Sept. 15) is misleading.
It is true that I would invest $1 trillion into rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Not only would this long-overdue investment make our country more productive and efficient, it would put 13 million Americans to work in good-paying jobs. It is true that I would invest in making all public colleges and universities tuition free and substantially reduce student debt. This higher-education proposal, estimated to cost about $75 billion a year, would be more than paid for by a tax on Wall Street speculation. It is true that I proposed to extend the solvency of Social Security until the year 2065 and to expand benefits. This proposal would be offset by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000 a year.
But, here’s where the article is mistaken. While a Medicare-for-all program may cost $15 trillion over 10 years, this proposal would eliminate all payments made by Americans and businesses to health-insurance companies. At a time when the U.S. spends substantially more per capita on health care than does any other country on earth, a single-payer health-care program would substantially lower our total health-care costs and would guarantee health care to all Americans. This approach would end the international embarrassment of the U.S. being the only major country on earth that doesn’t already do this. For The Wall Street Journal to ignore the enormous savings that Medicare-for-all would bring to our wildly inefficient and dysfunctional health-care system is irresponsible.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) writes from Washington. He is a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ill-create-jobs-provide-better-care-for-less-1442434046
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