![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2019\/01\/35539963605_3e8f1b7822_k.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMedicare for all!\u00a0 Free college for all!\u00a0 A guaranteed job for all!\u00a0 Such proposals are firing up progressive Democrats.\u00a0 Such promises appeal to lots of voters, maybe enough to win the White House and the government as a whole.\u00a0 Maybe the progressive agenda could become a reality!<\/p>\n
But there is the matter of how much it would cost and how to pay for it.<\/p>\n
David Weinberger<\/a> at the Federalist<\/em>\u00a0brings up a little-noticed article on the subject from last August in\u00a0Vox, <\/em>the\u00a0left-leaning online magazine.\u00a0 Using liberal<\/em> sources, with liberal<\/em> numbers, a liberal<\/em> publication ran the numbers on how much those three initiatives would cost and how the government could raise the money for them..<\/p>\n From Brian Riedl, America might be ready for democratic socialism. It\u2019s not ready for the bill<\/a>, in Vox<\/em>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to the left\u2019s own sources, democratic socialism will cost $42.5 trillion in its first decade. How would the US pay for it?<\/p>\n Under the most generous assumptions possible, liberal proposals would cut $8.5 trillion on the spending side. To begin with, state governments no longer burdened with health care costs would save $4.1 trillion, according to the Urban Institute. The popular leftist goal of slashing defense spending down to Europe\u2019s target of 2 percent of GDP, for which there is no plausible blueprint, would nonetheless save $1.9 trillion if achieved, according to\u00a0CBO data<\/a>. Charitably assuming that the jobs guarantee would reduce antipoverty spending by one-quarter would save $2.5 trillion.<\/p>\n Paying for the remaining $34 trillion would require nearly doubling federal tax revenues. Let\u2019s examine three paths using data from CBO\u2019s\u00a0menu of budget savings<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n
\n