Is Sanders selling a "fantasy agenda?" WaPo's PostPartisan says yes.

[Sparkly]

"Confirmed: Sanders is selling a fantasy agenda"
By Stephen Stromberg May 9
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has attracted a passionate following because he is selling his followers a fantasy. And not just any fantasy — but one of epic proportions. A group of respected, nonpartisan experts offered the public a sense of the scale on Monday, releasing the most thorough analysis yet on Sanders’s plan and finding that it is profoundly flawed. Before the Democrats agree to adopt his agenda, a price they might pay to get him to end his doomed campaign, they should be clear about what they are signing onto.

(snip)
Sanders articulates broad principles — free health care for all; free college for everyone. When pressed on the details, he falls back on broad explanations — other countries to seem to do these sorts of things, so we can, too. But in the real world of policymaking, where specific numbers must add up and tradeoffs must be considered, his program is a flop.

Sanders is not thinking big, as he often puts it. He is thinking carelessly. Those attracted to his message of expanding health-care access and shoring up the safety net, which are worthy goals, should know that he does not have a real plan to do these things. Instead, Sanders offers unchecked ideological certainty and unkeepable promises.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/05/09/confirmed-sanders-is-selling-a-fantasy-agenda/

Has this been debunked?

[w4rma]

1. Jeff Bezos says what?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/washington-post-closes-sale-to-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos/2013/10/01/fca3b16a-2acf-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html

[wendylaroux]

3. Hells ya!!!

high five

[Sparkly]

7. Bezos debunked it?

I'm not seeing that.

[Corporate666]

31. Didn't you get the memo?

Rich people are evil. Anyone who is successful is evil! If you are in the top 5% you are a rich lying evil bastard and...

(...wait... what was that?? Bernie is in the top 5%? Shit! )
( Well... what % is Bernie? The top 3%? )

Ahem... OK...

Well, like I was saying, if you are on the top 2% or above, you are a rich evil bastard and anything you say is a lie. The simple fact that you are in the top 5% (pssst... TOP TWO!), err, yes, the top 2% or above means you are totally untrustworthy and everything you say is a lie.

[villager]

2. Only endless war and ignored climate change are "realistic!"

Ask anyone inside the Beltway!

[Sparkly]

8. Didn't Bernie vote continually to keep funding the wars?

And I'm not sure who you're saying is ignoring climate change. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/climate/

[villager]

11. Yes, I'm sure that Bernie and Hillary's records on foreign intervention...

...are indistinguishable.

Nice to know that you personally, are dead set against such policies though!

[casperthegm]

12. Hillary Fracking Clinton?

Yep, queen of the environment, loves fracking, and "clean coal." And the Keystone Pipeline. Until she didn't... yes quite the steward for the environment.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/apr/13/bernie-s/does-hillary-clinton-support-fracking/

[Sparkly]

13. League of Conservation Voters Endorsement of Hillary Clinton

So the LCV Action Fund endorsement Monday of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination is a big deal. It is not just the earliest-ever endorsement in the history of the LCV Action Fund; it is an enthusiastic embrace, with fund president Gene Karpinski declaring, “When it comes to fighting the climate crisis, the stakes couldn’t be higher—and we are confident that Hillary Clinton is the right person for the job. With her proven history of leadership, strong environmental record, and a campaign committed to building a clean energy future, Hillary Clinton is without a doubt the most effective leader to stand up to Big Polluters and push forward an aggressive plan to tackle climate change and get it done.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-lands-key-endorsement-from-league-of-conservation-voters/

[casperthegm]

14. Endorsements are nice

Everybody likes to tout them. And yet they don't change the facts that I posted do they?

I'll prefer to make my own decisions based on the facts and a candidate's history rather than endorsements.

[Sparkly]

16. They do have the facts.

Sorry you don't like them.

[casperthegm]

24. I like facts. They generally favor Bernie.

They can, and have, looked at HRC's support for fracking, her "clean coal" position, and her flip flop on Keystone, and found those facts did not impact their decision to endorse her. Good for them. If you feel that their endorsement of her, despite those facts, trumps what I feel is an awful environmental policy, good for you as well.

I will say that I find it to be a little disconcerting that so many in the Democratic party are now good with fracking, "clean coal" trade deals that send our jobs overseas, regime change, no fly zones, opposing Glass Steagall, opposing healthcare for all, and opposing free college for all. Are these not, generally speaking, positions that the GOP agrees with? Perhaps Hillary will get a lot done if she gets elected. For whose benefit, that's debatable.

[Sparkly]

25. Only if they fit on a bumpersticker.

We're not "good with" what you say. You're not well informed about what her positions are.

[casperthegm]

26. Thank you

I was waiting for the "naive Bernie supporter" response. Thanks and good luck in the upcoming primaries. Feel the Bern.

[Sparkly]

27. You're very welcome.

There's probably a salve for that.

[arcane1]

4. It's an opinion piece. Opinions are not facts n/t

[Sparkly]

9. Are the facts stated within the opinion piece wrong?

[Hoyt]

10. Nor are political promises based on hope.

I'm for single payer, financial access to education, etc. But, we need to pursue those in ways that will work. Sanders isn't telling us the truth about the cost, nor the best way to get there.

[Trust Buster]

5. The votes don't exist in Congress. Money does not grow on trees. I could go on but.....

[tonyt53]

28. Yep, and Bernie has done nothing to help change that

he has not helped a single Democrat running for the Senate, It is like he and his supporters think a president can do all of that stuff without at least a Democrat majority in the Senate. And that is amazing

[grasswire]

6. Tell the Millennials they can't have what their counterparts in Europe have??

Really?

The Post might then have to explain why. The answer, of course, is because the Military Industrial Complex is devouring the money. And the 1 percenters are hoarding the rest.

It's that simple.

Millennials already know it.

This is what democracy looks like. Revolution.

[Sparkly]

19. poor millennials.

I don't see a revolution, though.

[Trust Buster]

32. You tell the Millenials to get a job, invest in their future and earn it just like everyone else has

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. A fluff propaganda piece

why is it that European nations can do this? Hell. why is CA pushing forwards on an aggresive, by HRC standards and the beltway, environmental policy?

[villager]

21. +1. But we are trained to bark dutifully that *our* "propaganda"... is not. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. I know, at least I know CNN is capable of doing journalism... for the foreign market

[AgingAmerican]

17. Actual governing is a fantasy to Hillary supporters

Yes We Can't!!

[Doctor_J]

18. Right wing establishment rag endorses right wing establishment candidate

I'm shocked

[Gothmog]

20. Imagine Bernie Sanders wins the White House. Then what?

Sanders is selling a fantasy becuase he has no ability to enact any of his proposals in the real world. Sanders' revolution has been a failure and so he can not deliver on his promises. Sanders proposals were dependent on a magical revolutions that woud deliver sufficient new voters to force the GOP to be reasonable. I am not sure how many such new voters would be required for this miracle but the revolution did not deliver close to the number of necessary new voters. Sanders' plans for adopting his proposals depend on these new voters. Here is how Sanders thinks that he will be able to force the GOP to be reasonable http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/21/1483791/-Imagine-Bernie-Sanders-wins-the-White-House-Then-what

Bernie Sanders has made some very big promises when it comes to his legislative priorities: He says he’ll make college free, pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and institute a generous single-payer national health insurance program. And when he’s asked how he’ll turn these promises into reality, he says that he and his supporters will help bring about a “political revolution.”

That’s a phrase Sanders uses often, but what does he mean by it? Sanders has said that if he wins the presidency, his victory will be accompanied by a “huge increase in voter turnout”—one that he thinks might end Republican control of Congress. But Sanders acknowledges that the House and Senate could, in spite of his best efforts, remain in GOP hands come next January.

Given that likelihood, Sanders offers an alternate means for achieving his political revolution. He says he knows that a Democratic president can’t simply “sit down and negotiate” with Republican leaders and forge a series of compromises. Anyone who's observed the GOP’s behavior over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency would not dispute that, and in any event, no compromise with Republicans would ever lead to single-payer anyway.

So what then? How would a President Sanders get Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan to pass any of his big-ticket items? This is the model he proposes:

What we do is you put an issue before Congress, let’s just use free tuition at public colleges and universities, and that vote is going to take place on November 8 ... whatever it may be. We tell millions and millions of people, young people and their parents, there is going to be a vote ... half the people don’t know what’s going on ... but we tell them when the vote is, maybe we welcome a million young people to Washington, D.C. to say hello to their members of Congress. Maybe we have the telephones and the e-mails flying all over the place so that everybody in America will know how their representative is voting. [...]

And then Republicans are going to have to make a decision. Then they’re going to have to make a decision. You know, when thousands of young people in their district are saying, “You vote against this, you’re out of your job, because we know what’s going on.” So this gets back to what a political revolution is about, is bringing people in touch with the Congress, not having that huge wall. That’s how you bring about change.

The rest of the DK article debunks that concept that Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell could be influenced by these new voters but we never get to this issue and Sanders himself admits that he will not bet elected without this revolution. So far we are not seeing any evidence of this revolution. Again, Sanders's whole campaign is based on this revolution and so it is appropriate to ask where these new voters are?

It is hard for me to take Sanders' proposals seriously including the ones you want to talk about unless and until we see some evidence of this revolution.

Again, where are these millions and millions of new voters?

[Sparkly]

22. My sigline

Goes back many years, because we kept hearing about this "Revolution" from fans of Nader, Kucinich and various Green candidates.

They're going to storm the Bastille! They're going to take to the streets and by golly, congress critters will look out their windows and see them and change their votes!

(Such top-down thinking -- I've always said this revolution has to be grass roots, built locally.)

Anyway, the sigline is from "Sylvia," a cartoon by Nicole Hollander (1980s). Sylvia is often at her typewriter, smoking and writing cynical prose. I remembered this line during a previous primary season with DU "revolutionaries," and have kept it.a

[Bill USA]

29. Bernie Sanders using the Peter Pan Plan - if you believe you can fly, you can fly

IF everybody just believes he can pull off everything he promises, we can all fly!

[pansypoo53219]

30. SO IS REAGAN EKONOMIKS. TINKLE DOWN IS WORSE.

[workinclasszero]

33. If Sanders would have come out and said at the beginning that he will

cut the military budget in half and close down most overseas US military bases to fund free healthcare I would believe he was serious about it.

The big tax increases plus that and you might be able to pull off free healthcare and forget the free collage. Go with the Presidents plan of the first two years free.

But of course he didn't so its not a serious proposal IMO.

But why? Could it be that F-35 connection Sanders has?