Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont) (left), Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, joined Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health, in highlighting how VA is bridging health care and information technology. (Photo courtesy of VA)
A Free for All
Norah O’Donnell interviewed Sen. Sanders last Friday for CBS Evening News and had questions for Bernie on free health care and free college tuition, as well as on his plan to pay off college loans.
Norah O’Donnell: Your agenda has promised free health care for everybody, free college tuition, and to pay off peoples’ college loans. The price tag for that is estimated to be $60 trillion dollars over ten years. Is that correct?
Bernie Sanders: Well look, we have political opponents…
Norah O’Donnell: You don’t know how much your plan costs?
Bernie Sanders: You don’t know. Nobody knows. This is impossible to predict.
Norah O’Donnell: You’re going to propose a plan to the American people and you’re not going to tell them how much it costs?
If Not Now, When?
Sanders was asked last fall by John Harwood (then at CNBC) how Sanders, if president, would generate the required revenue for his Medicare for All program.
Sanders dismissed the question, arguing that he didn’t have to explain how he would pay for socialized medicine.
“You’re asking me to come up with an exact detailed plan of how every American – how much you’re going to pay more in taxes, how much I’m going to pay. I don’t think I have to do that right now.”
