By Gabrielle Seunagal
Vermont Senator and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders started the month of May by campaigning against economic inequality. In his 30-minute speech, Sanders proposed a $15 minimum wage, three months of guaranteed paid family leave, free college, and a single payer healthcare system. Sanders asserted that a “progressive agenda” would meet the needs of working families and receive funding by imposing a tax increase on wealthy Americans. It is astounding that the Vermont Senator is incapable of realizing his severe contradictions.
Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst policies for working families. For starters, increasing the minimum wage will ensure a loss of hours for employees. Employers have to compensate for the loss of funds and they will start by docking employee hours, raising prices on good/services, and possibly laying off workers. As much as left wing radicals love the notion of taxing the wealthy out of existence, it is simply not practical or well advised. Wealthy people make up a great percentage of America’s job creators and innovators. If employers are taxed into bankruptcy, the biggest losers will be the subordinates who work for them. Those are the people who will lose their jobs as compensation for the company’s loss. If Sanders truly wishes to help working families, he will campaign to lower taxes. A reduction in taxes would guarantee that middle class families keep more money in their pockets.
Sanders might be one of the most dangerous politicians because he truly does not grasp the woeful flaws of his policies. Free college and a single payer healthcare system sound great before taking sensibility and reason into account. Firstly, free college is impractical. The lights, electricity, janitors, teachers, etc all require funding. Sanders proposes a tax increase on the wealthy, but how much does he expect upper class Americans to pay? Affluent Americans are not responsible for funding the less fortunate. Free handouts are direct enablers of laziness and entitlement delusions.
Moreover, the plethora of disadvantages associated with a single payer healthcare are reason enough to avoid it all together. Under a government funded healthcare plan, benefits and medical development are severely halted. The size of government will inevitably increase under this regime which forces American workers to pay extra taxes and lose more of their hard earned money while receiving nothing in return. Developments in the medicine field are terminated due to a lack of incentive. No person would benefit from making a medical breakthrough since the government would determine the salary of research and medical professionals. A single payer healthcare system would not provide aid to American families, instead it would take more money from their pockets, thus sinking them further into poverty.
Senator Sanders cannot claim to advocate for the advancement of working families while promoting policies that would leave them poorer. Working families are in desperate need of a severe reduction in taxes. This cannot be achieved from raising the minimum wage, instating ‘free college,’ and launching a single payer healthcare system. Despite Sander’s delusions, the fact remains that there are no free lunches and taxing the wealthy to enrich the poor will always result in epic failure. Progressive, economic policies are the worst enemy of working American families and should be avoided at all costs.
Written by a salaried employee with a gold plated health plan who votes Republican
Actually I’m not an employee. I work for myself. Nice try though.