Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health, talks with Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, about VA’s store and forward teleretinal imaging. Teleretinal imaging collects data and images from a Veteran patient and then forwards it to a specialist at another site, where it is retrieved and evaluated.
“I can’t rattle off to you every nickel and every dime.”
Bernie Sanders admitted that his plans to increase the power of Washington are so expansive that even he cannot guess how much it will costs. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, reports James Freeman in the WSJ, Cooper asked Sanders if he knows the full cost of his agenda.
Bernie Sanders: We do. I mean, you know, and– and– the price tag is– it will be substantially less than letting the current system go. I think it’s about $30 trillion.
Anderson Cooper: That’s just for Medicare for All, you’re talking about?
Bernie Sanders: That’s just Medicare for All, yes.
Anderson Cooper: Do you have a price tag for all of these things?
Bernie Sanders: No, I don’t. We try to– no, you mentioned making public colleges and universities tuition free and cancelling all student debt, that’s correct. That’s what I want to do. We pay for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation.
Anderson Cooper: But you say you don’t know what the total price is, but you know how it’s going to be paid for. How do you know it’s going to be paid for if you don’t know how much the price is?
Bernie Sanders: Well, I can’t– you know, I can’t rattle off to you every nickel and every dime.
Bernie thinks “it’s about $30 trillion”?
To paraphrase Senator Everett Dirksen:
A trillion here, a trillion there – pretty soon you’re talking real money.
