At a certain point, having ingested enough of Bernie Sanders’ rhetoric and policies, one can’t help but wonder: is Bernie Sanders really that dumb, or does he simply want to dupe the nation into impoverishing itself, both on an individual and group level?
The latest page out of the make-it-up-as-he-goes Bernie-festo is truly a feat of illogic, and it goes by a name that is so Bernie it almost hurts: the Stop BEZOS Act (Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act).
Who ever could Bernie be referring to here? Subtle!
The problem with the notion that Bernie’s proposal would somehow ‘Stop Bad Employers’ from ‘exploiting’ their workers, as he would surely categorize Amazon’s admittedly controversial lower-management style, is that the Stop BEZOS Act would most likely end up with those he professes to help completely out of work.
Bear with me.
‘The bill, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, would tax corporations with more than 500 employees at 100% for every dollar their employees receive via food stamps, the school-lunch program, Section 8 housing and Medicaid. Mr. Sanders calls it “corporate welfare” to pay benefits to low-wage employees.’ (WSJ)
So, according to the plan, corporations that hire employees who also receive social benefits would be taxed one-for-one for each dollar amount that those employees take in from the government. In Bernie’s twisted mind, this would result in an obvious outcome: employers would be forced to pay their employees a ‘decent’ wage that would allow them to live free of such government-supplied services as housing, healthcare, etc.
Except, those with the most juvenile interest in supply and demand economics know that this is not, in fact, the result that would arise from such a taxation plan. Instead, employees would simply not hire those employees whom they suspected of receiving government benefits. Just as raising the minimum wage costed workers jobs and led to fewer hours worked because, quite simply, the economics did not make sense for employers, the economics of Bernie’s Stop BEZOS Act make no sense, either.
Even though a stipulation in the Act would make it illegal for employers to ask whether a candidate was receiving federal benefits – a clear indication that shows Bernie does know these people would not be hired, all things equal, under his reality – it’s not particularly difficult for employers to gander that young men and women are less likely to be single parents, and therefore less likely to be receiving benefits of some sort. Loopholes within Bernie’s supposed checks on human nature abound.
But let’s play along for a minute. Let’s say that Bad Employers did succumb to Bernie’s vision, raising pay so that their employees were no longer eligible to receive social benefits. Would they really be better off? After all, they’d now have a slightly higher wage, but they’d also be tasked with paying for their housing, healthcare, etc.
Is the proposed boost in salary enough to make up for all the new costs that would come with such a modest hop up the socioeconomic ladder?
Bernie apparently seems to think so, but forgive me if his plan to essentially punish employers who hire welfare recipients doesn’t pass the sniff test. It’s not as if the Senator from Vermont has a reputation for putting forth mathematically sound policies…
‘Persistent readers of this series now know that Senator Sanders' misguided Medicare-for-All plan will produce a myriad of hidden costs that single-payer champions would prefer to ignore. These annual costs would include:
- $625 billion to $1.1 trillion in deadweight losses from new taxes (Part 1).
- $453 to $626 billion in additional waste (Part 2).
- $152 to $914 billion in costs resulting from rationing (Part 3).
- $23 to $152 billion in social losses stemming from reduced innovation (Part 4).
- So those favoring Senator Sanders' single-payer health plan evidently are willing to put up with hidden costs amounting to $1.25 trillion to $2.8 trillion a year ($3,800 to $8,500 per U.S. resident!).’ (Forbes)
*insert Bernie-bro economic rebuttal here*
Perhaps one of his disciples will step forward. Alexandria, any thoughts on how we’re going to pay for all this?
Didn’t think so.
But beyond the soundness of his economics, one has to wonder whether these near-certain consequences have not occurred to Bernie himself? Unless, of course, he is aware of the likelihood that his policy would leave more unemployed, and therefore more non-self-sufficient individuals willing to further embrace his Socialist policies.
That’s the fundamental question that the Stop BEZOS Act leads to: is Bernie really this blind, this ignorant to economics and human nature, or is he simply hoping to pull the wool over just enough peoples’ eyes so that the scales of impoverishment will tip ever in his kind’s favor?
It’s about high-time that somebody puts an end to all the Socialist madness once and for all. Some kind of comprehensive, condensed rebuttal of all of he and his followers most wrongheaded, grievance-riddled policies and party lines…
Whenever someone does, I have the name ready.
We’ll call it the Stop BERNIE Act.
