Hillary AND Bernie Partisans: STOP Posting RW Talking points
That goes for Bernie Partisans too. I've mentioned time and again that there is a well funded Right wing group dedicated to sowing dissension and undermining Hillary's chances because they see her as the most likely candidate in November.
Now that Bernie is getting traction, the guns have turned on him. The latest example: the Wall St. Journal's Editorial Board, a bunch of Right Wind Murdoch shills, has posted a disingenuous estimate of Bernie Sander's proposals and their cost which they estimate at EIGHTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS.
Immediately the right wing calliope began blasting this all over hell and gone, and Hillary's partisans immediately seized upon this and gleefully posted it everywhere, without consideration of the actual figures or anything about where the 18 trillion figure came from.
At DU where the friction is most pointedly at it's most fractious, the reposting of right wing crap is epidemic. Pandemic. On both sides.
Where did the WSJ get the 18 Trillion figure? Well, someone put up a bill in congress proposing universal healthcare, and they projected the cost at 15 trillion or so.
Yes, a majority of this figure is based upon universal health care.
Over at Plum Line, WaPo's politics blog, Paul Waldman explains the details nicely. (supscription may be required) A brief quote:
And let’s say that it did indeed cost $15 trillion over 10 years. Would that be $15 trillion in new money we’d be spending? No, it would be money that we’re already spending on health care, but now it would go through government. If I told you I could cut your health insurance premiums by $1,000 and increase your taxes by $1,000, you wouldn’t have lost $1,000. You’d be in the same place you are now.
By the logic of the scary $18 trillion number, you could take a candidate who has proposed nothing on health care, and say, “So-and-so proposes spending $42 trillion on health care!” It would be accurate, but not particularly informative.
There’s something else to keep in mind: every single-payer system in the world, and there are many of them of varying flavors, is cheaper than the American health care system. Every single one. So whatever you might say about Sanders’ advocacy for a single-payer system, you can’t say it represents some kind of profligate, free-spending idea that would cost us all terrible amounts of money.
No matter who the eventual nominee is, eyes on the prize, everybody. Get ready for a dump truck load of lies disguised as truths and targeted to your particular predilections.
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