Bernie vs. Bernie: Single-payer utopia then & now

**Written by Doug Powers

Time for another episode of “Socialism Vision” vs. “Socialism Reality,” this time courtesy of the same socialist (with an assist from some like-minded Dems).

The wind-up:

I’m very proud to be introducing the Medicare for All Act today, which has 15 co-sponsors in the Senate, a record level of support. http://pic.twitter.com/26GimpDJoC

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 13, 2017

And the pitch:

A video from 1987 shows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has not always considered single-payer health care a slam dunk for progressive reformers.
[…]
“You want to guarantee that all people have access to health care as you do in Canada,” Sanders said.

“But I think what we understand is that unless we change the funding system and the control mechanism in this country to do that—for example, if we expanded Medicaid [to] everybody,” Sanders added. “Give everybody a Medicaid card—we would be spending such an astronomical sum of money that, you know, we would bankrupt the nation.”

VIDEO

And it’s not as if the nation’s in a better position to be able to afford that extra trillions and trillions of dollars for more “free” stuff:

U.S. national debt reaches $20 trillion for the first time ever: https://t.co/yoVbxadHoP http://pic.twitter.com/JaJACQUAhf

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 12, 2017

In 1987, when Sanders said single-payer would “bankrupt the nation,” the national debt was just over $2 trillion.

But anyway, for some reason Sanders seems to think that today’s super-expensive “free” is less super-expensive than it was 30 years ago. Inflation doesn’t apply to socialist pipe dreams.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe