EDITORIAL: Bernie Sanders takes a vacation in Fantasyland
The list of “free” stuff promised by Democratic presidential candidates eager to buy votes continues to grow like kudzu. Health care, college, day care, prescription drugs and abortion will all apparently be available at no cost under the next Democratic administration, if you buy the rhetoric. In fact, Democrats will even hand out a free “guaranteed income” to every American, along with magically wiping out student loan debt.
And now Sen. Bernie Sanders has added two new freebies to the list: electric vehicles and electricity.
Comrade Sanders last week unveiled his version of the Green New Deal, a $16.3 trillion melange of progressive pipe dreams that would remake the American economy by obliterating the free market in favor of the type of bureaucratic central planning that proved a massive and deadly failure during test runs throughout the 20th century.
The Sanders proposal seeks to essentially make fossil fuels illegal in most instances by 2030, while showering billions and billions of dollars on green special interests. Among the specifics of the program: offering $2.09 trillion in grants to poor and middle-class Americans to trade in their evil gas-powered cars and pickups for brand new green vehicles.
“Currently, purchasers of electric vehicles are wealthier than buyers of conventional cars,” the candidate’s website notes. “As president, Bernie will make sure working families share the benefits of this transition and nobody is left behind.” Isn’t that special? In addition, he wants to ensure that no owner of a new electric vehicle “will ever have to worry about where to charge their car or if they can pay for it.” In other words, free battery boosts under Bernie!
To pay for all this, Bernie promises to unleash a litigation barrage against energy capitalists and to tax them to the hilt. How they’re supposed to serve as the money men for the green welfare state when they’re no longer allowed to operate as profitable businesses remains a mystery.
In addition to the free electric cars and free charging privileges, Bernie envisions a massive expansion of federal subsidies to build new “solar, wind and geothermal energy sources.” This, he claims, will result in electricity being “virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.”
Imagine the idyllic human existence under Bernie. You hop into your free Chevy Volt and head down to the charging station to juice it up courtesy of the government. Then you drop the kids off at free day care and make a quick stop for your complimentary wellness check at the federal clinic before heading off to attend class — no charge, of course — at the university. As you quietly motor down the highway, your mind is blissfully clear because the great financial burden of your crushing student loans and summer electric bill have been lifted, replaced with a monthly check — a “guaranteed income” — from Washington. Ah, life is good.
There’s a scene in “Back to School” during which Rodney Dangerfield’s character, Thornton Melon — a self-made millionaire who tries to support his struggling college-bound son by enrolling in school himself — spars with a pompous economics professor over the off-the-book realities that often confront entrepreneurs. After chastising Mr. Melon in front of the class, the professor asks, “Notwithstanding Mr. Melon’s input, the next question for us is: Where to build our factory?” To which Rodney replies, “How about Fantasyland?”
It’s a locale in which Bernie Sanders spends an inordinate amount of time.liar.