Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested that “Medicare for all” costs be covered by money allocated to the Department of Defense.
The New York Democrat over the weekend referenced a Nation magazine report about problems with a Pentagon audit due to bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors.
“In all, at least a mind-boggling $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be traced, documented, or explained,” the progressive publication reported.
“$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained.’ $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, citing the Nation article.
$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions “could not be traced, documented, or explained.”
$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T.
That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon.
And that’s before our premiums. https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 2, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez, a socialist, is an advocate for universal healthcare. Long a goal on the Left, practical proposals about it frequently run into obstacles about how it would be paid for.
The libertarian-leaning Koch brothers estimate that over the first ten years, a Medicare for All system would cost the federal government $32 trillion.
Even if Ocasio-Cortez’s theorized proposal came to fruition, the $21 trillion Pentagon money, which has not yet been accounted for, was accumulated over a 17-year period, and would cover less than 66 percent of the first ten years of a universal healthcare system.
