Democratic presidential hopefuls are offering voters freebies galore as the 2020 Presidential Election gets under way. They’re promising free child care, Medicare for All and no-cost college educations. Do they think the electorate is made up of free-loaders who are ready and willing to trade their votes for all manner of giveaways?
One candidate threw his hat into the ring along with a truly cockamamie proposal that takes the cake. Granted, Andrew Yang is among the least known candidates, but when he announced that he was a candidate for the Democratic party’s nomination he did so with great fanfare and a proposal that he is unabashedly willing to pay cash for votes.
In Yang’s own words: “As president, my first priority will be to implement the Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income (UBI) for every American adult over the age of 18: $1,000 a month, no strings attached, paid for by a new tax on the companies benefiting most from automation.” Check out his Web site.
Think about it for a second. Yang is promising to use taxpayer money to give Americans, as a whole, some $200 billion a month with “no strings attached.” His largesse is fantastical and would cost an inconceivable $2.4 trillion a year.
It’s unlikely to happen but like Yang’s more high-profile competitors for the Democratic nomination, he is probably hoping that the voters won’t do the math.
Take the schemes being proposed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and other progressives seeking the nomination, among them the notion of Medicare for All, as Sanders calls it. Voters would love it if they could get their health expenses paid for. But, nobody gets something for nothing.
For example, it might appear that you’d be able to see your doctor for free and undergo expensive medical treatments at no cost under Medicare for All. However, several authoritative studies reveal the hefty price tag that comes with free medicine and medical services.
Justin Haskins, at The Heartland Institute, put it this way in an article posted on the fox.com news site: “millions of middle-class earners would be hit particularly hard under ‘Medicare-for-All.’ For example, [income tax] filers earning $50,000 to $75,000 would likely need to pay on average $7,773 to $9,171 more in new taxes. Those families earning $75,000 to $100,000 would pay $12,612 to $14,880 more. Most households with more than $100,000 income would pay close to or more than $20,000 in additional taxes.”
In addition to the cost, the nation would be paying an additional price as the delivery of health care begins to deteriorate. Consider why many Canadians are willing to pay for U.S. doctor visits and treatments rather than take advantage of free care in their own country. It’s simply because they get better treatment south of the border and they don’t have to put up with long delays.
It seems that progressive presidential contenders are staying up nights trying to outdo each other by coming up with new promises of even more free stuff if only voters hire them to run the country.
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The US has had a welfare culture since WWII while the recipients of welfare have become more and more impoverished and removed
from the mainstream. I truly believe the vast majority of voters see that these promises have failed everywhere they have been
tried ( Venezuela, Cuba, etc) and know they will fail here too. The real problem is that almost half of our country pays no income tax
and these people see no danger of free for themselves. The lie that freebies will be paid for by the rich only needs to be crushed.
We all know that any middle income worker will pay dearly to provide more freebies to those with no or low income.
Unfortunately there are a lot of voters who just get by in the world, rent and live paycheck to paycheck or on our taxpayer dime. They have no skin in the game and they couldn’t care less where the $ comes from. All they hear is free. Doesn’t matter to them socialism, capitalism etc. bc it won’t change their lifestyle one bit. With MSM suppression of the truth these useful idiots are who we need to overcome in the voting booth. That is if they can keep the ballot box untampered.
I’m an Army brat but well past that time in life. While my dad was in, I got allergy shots from the military – didn’t read the directions and I got sick – overdosed me. I don’t trust the government with my healthcare. I want to make my own choices and not be subjected to what they say I can have.
The people of Europe have already succumbed to the siren song of ‘something for nothing’ and many European countries must now borrow to pay only the interest on their national debt. In spite of this, the people of Greece were demonstrating for more “free stuff” from their government. If there is no self control and self-denial among U. S. citizens, for things that are unearned, we will go down this same path. Sadly, our Federal Government through our elected representatives continues to borrow to gratify its citizens with things the Government cannot pay for. Young people without the parental training to work and earn what they get, to save and then purchase, will be enticed to vote for those who promise the most ‘free stuff’, because they won’t have the self-discipline to work for it and earn it.
I urge all to go on line and bring up the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union authored by Stalin and his cronies. I am betting it will sound familiar.
All the Democrats have to offer the people is everything for free which will bankrupt our country for the sake of a few votes.
Lets call them ” LIBERALS” which is exactly what they are instead of sugar-coating them with the label PROGRESSIVES? Isn’t PROGRESSIVE the insurance company with stupid ads on TV with “Jamie”, “Flo” etc?
As well as being owned by George Soros in his portfolio of companies!!
Why not call them what they are, Socialists? A collective mob of self described highly educated and enlightened useful idiots, who believe that you, and I, must think, do, live, and die, according to the mob’s rules. You, the individual, don’t exist under their ignorance. We need to take the mob seriously since it has decided that the end justifies the means and the hatred of the individual drives their vile and dangerous rhetoric and actions. The only things more dangerous than the collective are the criminally insane elitist politicians and their media propagandists (calling themselves journalists) who pander to the America hating, socialism loving leftist brain dead losers.
“Free” means without charge. I can assure you that healthcare isn’t gonna be free. Hospitals and doctors will charge for their services. Similarly, education will not be free – educators will be in business for profit. Democrats have been misusing the word “free” for too long! Bernie can’t open his cake hole for a minute without saying the word “free”. Anytime taxpayers pay a $trillion for anything, it’s not free. The current democrat socialists running for president have been smoking that wacky tobaccy again.
It’s so sad when so many uninformed Americans will actually fall for these lies. When America is willing to give up freedom for freebie’s, we are truly lost. The left will do ANYTHING to try to win this next election. I always say that the elected are a direct reflection of those who elected them. America is at great risk of losing everything that has made us great. Only through God’s help can we hope to remain free.
“Voters would love it if they could get their health expenses paid for.” I believe the unanimous position of the leading Democrat candidates is that everyone here — legal or not — would be entitled to have their health expenses paid for. By the way, my Medicare is not free, and I expect that if any of the Medicare for All schemes is implemented the annual Medicare cost for people like me would be increased substantially to help pay for the cost of covering everyone.
YES IT WILL! You can count on it! Tell all your friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors . . . not to be fooled! Americans got fooled not once but TWICE under Obama by re-electing him. Let’s not make the same mistake again by electing any of the 2020 Democrat candidates.
How about making members of Congress the same health insurance other Americans have to take and only so long as they are members of Congress NO FREE LIFETIME COVERAGE!!!
ask those who believe in Medicare for all if they are planning to take Medicare off budget. If not Medicare for all is just a huge tax increase on working people and retirees.
I am a Conservative and I believe gvt healthcare for all is inevitable. The primary opposition will be Insurance
Sadly, a large number of voters fall for government providing for their cradle to grave needs! Even sadder, the only thing that will change their thinking is actually getting it and finding out what it will really cost them . Like all socialist failures, the first ones exterminated are those that voted for it!
The move to socialism is inevitable
Yup. As they say, the government that is big enough to give you everything is also big enough to take it away!
Unless these Democrat candidates are literally crazy and really should be interned in a mental hospital, it makes one wonder what they are thinking about. I mean, do they really think Americans who financially manage their household bills aren’t going to realize that what these candidates are promising is financially unattainable? And don’t they understand the basic economic principal of supply and demand….when everyone gets $1,000/month, the supply of cash will rise thus increasing the demand on consumables reducing their supply and therefore raising their price (inflation) until the purchasing power of the average household is reduced back to what it was before the $1,000/month was granted. If the average voting age was 16, what Yang proposes would make sense as it would be effective in buying votes from those with no financial experience.
Clearly, Andrew Yang’s Ying and Yang are not in harmony and the poor man is sick….but then….that seems to be par-for-the-course for most of the Democrats.
If you can’t get the votes legitimately – buy them say the democrats. However this would result in a Tsunami of illegals from Central America, and the collapse of the American economy, the stock market, our voting and education systems, and any humane or orderly form of immigration. The deomonicrats are without shame – or even love of country.
You are right. The collapse of America as we know it is their aim. Once in power, their object is to control and the stupes in this country think that their lives will be better????? Look around, dear gullibles, USSR, Cuba, Venezuela. Do you need a brick wall to fall on you?
The Dems aren’t stupid! They know that when you say something will be free, most people will not consider where it comes from, only that they can get their share. It’s a different world now. Everyone’s entitled, everyone’s a victim and the Dems know it – they started it!
Not everyone. But certainly most who have no gratitude, nor understanding that every good thing comes from God and the rest is “bait” for servitude.