Much like his other opponents in both parties, 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is only good at talking points. Aside from the income inequality, one percent and tax the rich buzzwords, Sanders can’t seem to espouse how he would institute policies and pay for his plans without getting lost.
Pretty much, he can only say tax the one percent.
This was apparent during an interview with HBO host Bill Maher, who certainly isn’t a small government guy by any means. Maher questioned Sanders on a number of things, including how Sanders would pay for his ideas and details on a government healthcare system. When Maher pressed for answers, Sanders stammered and then returned to his base message of corporations controlling the government.
Take a gander at this exchange the two men had:
“If you’re saying that the government is going to pick up the tab but not make the insurance companies, the hospitals and the doctors not gouge people, then we are going to break the budget,” Maher said. “It has to work both ways. So you’re going to make the hospitals do that? Because that is socialism.”
Sanders responded as he seemed surprised by the question: “[The U.S. is] the only major country on earth that allows private insurance companies to make huge profits on the healthcare system.”
Or how about this one:
“So you’re saying we can pay for all this without raising taxes on anybody but the 1%?” Maher asked.
“We may have to go down a little bit lower than that,” Sanders replied. “But not much lower.”
Sanders has gained quite the popularity by making his platform simple: tax the rich, increase the size of government and give things away for free without paying for them. This ostensibly is resonating and why he is closing in on Hillary Clinton. But this may have been his worst performance yet.
Too bad Maher isn’t more sound at economics because then he could have taken down Sanders one by one.
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