Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Fairy tales continue in Dem campaign land
Another week on the Democratic campaign trail and the magic bean parade marches on. On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with his ideological acolyte, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, unveiled their plan to transform the nation’s public housing stock into a model of Green New Deal efficiency. A day later, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released her road map for overseeing the nationalization of the health care industry.
But like the unsuspecting brother and sister in “Hansel and Gretel,” who are lured into confinement by the promise of endless sweets and confectionery, voters shouldn’t be fooled by progressives promising something for nothing.
Comrades Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have dubbed their $180 billion proposal the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act. The goal is to “retrofit, rehabilitate and decarbonize the entire nation’s public housing stock.” This will entail having 250,000 union decarboners fan out across the nation — all clad in “Che berets,” perhaps? — to install solar panels and other renewable energy infrastructure in all public housing.
In addition, a press release explained, “the bill creates sustainable communities for families by building new child care and senior centers, expanding access to clean transit and creating community gardens and other community amenities.”
Sen. Sanders even acknowledges that climate change is actually just a pretense for a whole host of initiatives intended to cripple capitalism and free markets in favor of the type of bureaucratic central planning that, time after time, has proven a deadly failure.
“The Green New Deal is not just about climate change,” his statement reads. “It is an economic plan to create millions of good-paying jobs, strengthen our infrastructure and invest in our country’s frontline and vulnerable communities.” What’s next? A plan to collectivize the agricultural interests of the kulaks?
Sen. Sanders and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez insist that taxpayers will come out ahead, promising that all of the above will save $100 million in public housing costs each year while reducing annual energy outlays by $613 million. Sure it will. And then the cow jumped over the moon.
The fairy tales kept coming on Friday when Sen. Warren unleashed her blueprint for transitioning the country to a government-run health care system that would eliminate the private insurance now covering 170 million Americans.
In her first 100 days, Sen. Warren promises to create a “Medicare for All” plan that will be “immediately free” for “nearly half of all Americans.” What happens if Congress isn’t interested? Crickets.
We’re told that, under this proposal, “consumer costs will automatically decline, so eventually coverage … will be free to everyone.” Within three years, private insurance will go the way of the buggy whip and Americans will enjoy a system that guarantees “comprehensive health care for every American, long-term care, vision, dental and hearing.” This will “reduce costs and produce better health care outcomes.” Sure it will.
As Sen. Warren envisions it, those Americans who may not be comfortable putting their health care in the hands of federal bureaucrats will come around once they become captivated by the shining new city of gold on the hilltop representing the virtues of socialized medicine. And if they still resist? Well, too bad, Menshevik. Off to the gulag. So much for the progressive commitment to “choice.”
Once again, Sen. Warren and her advisers fail to address the obvious and massive economic disruption her scheme would trigger when it comes to hospitals, the medical profession and the insurance industry. And they continue to insist that the government can cover the costs of virtually unlimited medical care for 330 million people “without raising taxes one penny on middle-class families.”
Political campaigns aren’t conducive to restraint or realistic rhetoric, of course. But the sheer volume of leftist fantasy emanating from the Sanders and Warren campaigns sets a new standard. Can there be any doubt why President Donald Trump wants them to keep talking?
The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. All other opinions expressed on the Opinion and Commentary pages are those of the individual artist or author indicated.