No, Bernie Sanders isn't proposing to spend $18 trillion

Bernie Sanders
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal had a pretty jaw-dropping analysis tallying the costs of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) proposals should he win the Democratic nomination then the White House. But is he really proposing $18 trillion in new spending over 10 years? It may surprise you that The Wall Street Journal isn't exactly playing it straight with a self-avowed democratic socialist candidate, but the price tag is, at the very least, misleading.

"While Sanders does want to spend significant amounts of money, almost all of it is on things we're already paying for," explains Paul Waldman at The Washington Post. "He just wants to change how we pay for them." A lot of that involves new taxes to replace costs borne by some smaller population — free college tuition, for example — which may or may not suit your policy preferences, Waldman notes, but "we shouldn't treat his proposals as though they're going to cost us $18 trillion on top of what we're already paying."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.