Sanders Big Spending Plans-Can we afford them? A Trillion Here - Trillions Ove There!

[Pam]

SC is one state. There will be others. This also happened yesterday:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchForBernie?src=hash

[old guy]

Things are looking better. Any things possible.

[JBMcB]

Interesting roundup of presidential economic ideas, as decided by a panel of economists from across the political spectrum:

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/20...cted-president

Here are the panelists:
http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-econom...l/participants

tl;dl version:

Taxing income from speculative investments - Good idea
Free college for everyone - Bad idea
Free community college for everyone - Maybe a good idea
Raising the minimum wage to $15 - Very bad idea
Raising the minimum wage a couple of dollars - Probably a good idea
Deporting illegal immigrants - Terrible idea

[Jimaz]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » Robert Reich: Bernie's Critics Are Wrong!

[JBMcB]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » Robert Reich: Bernie's Critics Are Wrong!

Yeah I read that blog post. Problem is, to pay for the single payer health system, Sanders is relying on an economic principal that has never shown to exist:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/up...plan.html?_r=0

tl;dr version:

To pay for his social programs, he's relying on governmental stimulus spending that will boost the output of the economy, even after the stimulus has been removed and diverted to social spending. This has never happened - once you remove the stimulus, the effect of the stimulus also disappears.

It's also assuming a ten year multiplier of 8.9 on stimulus spending, which is insanely high. Even with continued stimulus spending, a multiplier of 2-4x is a pretty standard assumption.

This is Republican style, decrease-taxes and increase-spending levels of economic ineptitude.

[old guy]

Isn't the point that we're spending the money, but what are we spending it on? We spend more money, and much more on the defense budget than any other several, largest nations combined. And less on education or infrastructure.

How can that remain sustainable?

We have to rethink socialism and capitalism and realize that a new thought process needs to be addressed. We are becoming a
nation that can scarcely provide a decent living for the honest working people. That's a sad scenario and this might be the last chance to change it.

[JBMcB]

Isn't the point that we're spending the money, but what are we spending it on? We spend more money, and much more on the defense budget than any other several, largest nations combined. And less on education or infrastructure.

That's a great point. I think we should greatly reduce military spending and redirect funds to infrastructure. Most economists think the best solution is a hugely simplified tax code [[progressive flat tax) with a minimum income system - which I could get on board with.

Problem is, if you want to reduce military spending, Bernie isn't your guy:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...r-machine.html

He says he's firmly against the military-industrial complex, but his voting record says otherwise.