Bernie Sanders spoke during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in order to convince his supporters to back Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House. He highlighted several of Clinton’s policy proposals, touting their benefits, but many would also have a significant cost for taxpayers:
- “Revolutionize higher education”: The Clinton campaign estimates her expanded “New College Compact” plan would cost $450 billion over ten years;
- “A major expansion of community health centers”: Clinton would expand funding by $40 billion over ten years;
- “Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure”: Clinton proposes to boost infrastructure spending by $275 billion over five years; and,
- “Transform our energy system”: Clinton’s Clean Energy Challenge Grants would cost $60 billion over ten years.
There were two Clinton proposals cited by Sanders that could reduce spending. In 2013, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a proposal to create a “public option” in the health insurance exchanges would decrease outlays by $5 billion over five years. And, a proposal to reform mandatory minimum sentencing would cut spending by $375 million over five years.
Clinton’s complete agenda would boost outlays by over $170 billion per year. Detailed line-by-line analyses of the spending proposed by Clinton, Gary Johnson, and Donald Trump are available at CandidateCost.org.