by Audrey Conklin
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s various spending proposals amount to a total of $97.5 trillion over 10 years.
Total government spending could jump to as much as 70% of GDP under Sanders’s spending plans and 50% of the U.S. workforce would work for the government, the Manhattan-based news outlet City-Journal reported Monday.
The U.S. budget deficit could reach $90 trillion over 10 years under all of Sanders’ plans, even though Federal Government spending is already projected to reach $60 trillion and state and local government spending is projected to reach $29.7 trillion, according to the City-Journal citing a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
Additionally, the budget deficit over 10 years could reach $90 trillion, and annual budget deficits could exceed 30% of GDP, the City-Journal reported.
My NEW article adds up Bernie Sanders’ entire agenda:
–**$97.5 trillion** in new spending over the decade.
–70% of GDP in total govt. spending (fed+state+local).
–30% of GDP budget deficits.
–50% of workforce working for the government.https://t.co/Pse1cDSDLB— Brian Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 (@Brian_Riedl) October 15, 2019
Sanders’ Medicare For All plan would cost about $32 trillion over 10 years, according to two studies — one by the Mercatus Center and another by the Urban Institute — though the Vermont senator himself said the plan could cost “somewhere between $30 and $40 trillion over a 10-year period” in a July interview with Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.
His climate change plan could amount to $16.9 trillion and aims to create 20 million jobs, and his plan to guarantee all Americans full-time government jobs that pay $15-per-hour plus benefits could cost $30.1 trillion.
The last $11.1 trillion would come from his $3 trillion plan to make public colleges free and forgive all student loan debt, $1.8 trillion Social Security expansion plan, $2.5 trillion housing plan, $1.6 trillion paid family leave plan, $1 trillion infrastructure plan, $800 billion K-12 education plan and $400 billion higher-education teacher salary plan, according to City-Journal.
These programs would also double the amount of Americans who work for the Federal Government, the City-Journal reported.
Taxes on the country’s wealthiest families would also increase significantly under a Sanders administration. His wealth tax, introduced on Sept. 24, aims to raise $4.35 trillion over 10 years. To do so, an annual 1% tax would be implemented on a net worth of over $32 million, and that percentage would increase by marginal rates until it reaches 8% on net worth over $10 billion.
The Vermont senator‘s tax would be applied to accumulated wealth instead of just income, which would cut the average billionaire’s wealth in half in 15 years, The New York Times reported citing two economists who helped create the Vermont senator’s plan.
“I don’t think that billionaires should exist,” Sanders told The NYT. “This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have, and I think that’s exactly what we should be doing.”
The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Audrey Conklin is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Bernie Sanders” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
