The Washington Post’s editorial board stomped on Sen. Bernie Sanders’, I-Vt., presidential campaign Friday, accusing the Democratic lawmaker of peddling “facile” ideas and proposals that are “not very well thought out.”
“The nation could use big measures to … do all sorts of other things that Mr. Sanders cares about,” the Post editorial wrote. “We argue for policies such as a carbon tax and public campaign financing, even though they are subject to massive and possibly insurmountable political opposition, because they would lead to large and needed changes.”
“What concerns us is not that Mr. Sanders’s program to tackle these issues is ‘radical,’ as he put it, but that it is not very well thought out,” they added.
The editorial noted that it is not alone in arguing that the senator’s proposal to reform health care depends on “unbelievable assumptions” about cutting costs without also affecting the quality of treatment Americans currently receive.
“While there may be a fair case for a single-payer health-care system, Mr. Sanders does not make it. Instead, he promises comprehensive benefits without seriously discussing the inevitable trade-offs,” the added. “That is not just bold; it is half-baked.”
For good measure, the Post made clear it believes Sanders doesn’t actually understand the issue.
“Health-care policy is only one place where Mr. Sanders makes solving the country’s difficult problems seem easy and obvious when reality is messier. He would use higher taxes on Wall Street and the rich to fund vast new programs, such as free college for all, but has no plausible plan for plugging looming deficits as the population ages,” the editorial reads.
“His solution to the complex international crises the United States must manage is to hand them off to others — though there is no such cavalry. This might not distinguish him much from other politicians. And that is part of the point: His campaign isn’t so much based on a new vision as on that old tactic known as overpromising,” they added.
This is the second time this week that the Post editorial board has come out against Sanders.
On Wednesday, the Post called his campaign the stuff of “fiction.”
“Mr. Sanders is not a brave truth-teller,” the Post said. “He is a politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it.”
The Vermont senator responded later to the criticism, saying, “If the Washington Post wants to say that our ideas are bold, I accept that.”
