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IPFS News Link • Politics

Taxpayers Lose When the Government Gives Out 'Free' Stuff

• https://reason.com

Never before have presidential candidates offered so many giveaways.

Never before have presidential candidates offered voters so much "free" stuff.

Kamala Harris wants you to "collect up to $500 a month."

Elizabeth Warren says, "We need to go tenfold in our research and development in green energy."

No one has tracked the cost of all of the promises. So my video team did!

Who will spend the most?

Here are the new spending proposals from the five most popular (according to ElectionBettingOdds.com) candidates.

In my latest video, we break it down by category, education spending first:

Joe Biden wants to "triple the amount of money we spend for Title I schools" ($32 billion) to create "universal pre-K" ($26 billion), provide "free community college" ($6 billion per year), and double the number of psychologists and social workers in schools ($14 billion)—$78 billion total.

That's a lot, but much less than what Kamala Harris would spend.

She too wants to "make community college free" ($6 billion), but she'd add debt-free "four-year public college" ($80.1 billion), "increase government's investment in child care" dramatically ($60 billion), and "give the average public school teacher a $13,000 raise" ($31.5 billion) for a total of $177 billion.

Pete Buttigieg rarely says what his proposals would cost, but he at least seems to want to spend less than Harris.

He touts "free college for low- and middle-income students" and would give teachers more money. Assuming his plan is like Harris', that brings his education total to $87 billion.

Elizabeth Warren would spend much more.

"You'll be debt-free!" she tells students. Taxpayers, unfortunately, will be deeper in debt, since she would "forgive" most existing student debt and make public college tuition free ($125 billion).

She also wants a "Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act" ($70 billion).

These big-ticket items put her in first place so far.

But wait! Bernie Sanders would spend even more.


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