Single-Payer Health Care: Sanders' Fat-Wallet Proposal
Sanders has been promoting the implementation of a single-payer health care system for months on the campaign trail and
released his full plan in January. As president, he would toss Obamacare and replace it with a "Medicare for all" system that he says would cost $1.38 trillion per year but save people and businesses more than $6 trillion over the next decade.
In October, Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst estimated a single-payer health care system such as the one proposed by Sanders would cost the U.S. federal government $15 trillion, and seven of his other programs -- including increased spending on public infrastructure, expanding social security and making tuition free at public institutions -- would cost an additional $3.5 trillion.
The good news?
Friedman also says the health care overhaul would enable up to $10 trillion in savings for the general public. And the other programs? Another $1.1 trillion in additional savings over 10 years. And excluding the issue of likely higher taxes, the programs could mean seven million more jobs and a nearly $4 trillion increase in economic activity in 2026.
Higher Taxes Everywhere, and an End to Free Trade
Sanders has pledged to hike taxes on the wealthy, including a progressive estate tax on the top 0.3% of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million and lifting the cap on taxable income (the limit of annual wages or self-employment income that is eligible for social security taxes) to above $250,000 (it is currently set at $118,500 for 2015).
He has especially targeted big corporations, pledging to ensure they pay their "fair share" and stop shifting profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying taxes. Should he succeed, it won't just be major companies that feel the hit.
"Higher corporate taxes are not such a big issue for the corporations themselves," said Kwak. "Corporations will pay higher taxes, so the profits available to shareholders will go down. But they will respond in part by increasing prices and in part by reducing employee compensation, so the impact of the taxes will be spread across consumers, employees and investors."
Sanders has also promised to enact a tax on Wall Street speculators and raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2020. The moves don't necessarily indicate hostility toward corporate America but do demonstrate greater willingness to tax corporate profits and redistribute wealth.
"If that happens, then we'll start to see a change in the distribution of national income, which will be interesting in itself, in poverty, higher wages, smaller inequality, but also will put the economy on a path to more stable footing," Friedman said. "The economy is much less stable now than it was before with the great run-up in inequality, and Sanders will be looking to reverse that a little bit, move us to a more balanced distribution of income and a more stable economy."
And, he has pledged to shut down trade policies NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have mixed results but could bring more jobs back to the U.S.
"The theory on these trade agreements is that jobs grow abroad, and whatever benefits happen with regards to exporting our markets, our products, is completely overwhelmed by the loss of American jobs," said Greenberger. "And jobs have gone abroad under existing trade agreements, and those who understand these trade agreements say the same thing will happen with the Trans-Pacific trade agreement."
http://www.thestreet.com/story/1331...e-s-what-would-happen-to-the-u-s-economy.html