Bernie Sanders Fiscal Policy

Democratic Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders has announced several proposals that involve raising money through taxes. Some of the subjects Sanders plans to target include youth unemployment, infrastructure, health care, but his most well-known policy he intends to implement is his College For All Act. This fiscal policy enacts a minuscule tax on Wall Street speculators to relieve students of the burden of paying for college. Currently, the cost of attending a public college, on average, is $9,410 for state residents and $23,893 for out-of-state residents. This plan of free tuition at public colleges will cost approximately $75 billion a year. The tax Sanders intends to impose on Wall Street is a federal “speculation fee” of 0.5 percent …show more content…
A popular statement regarding this policy is that students are more than capable of finding ways to pay for college and are just too lazy to work for it, but these assumptions are usually made by people of older generations. Tuition rates have increased immensely and are, on average, $9,000 per year. Therefore, a minimum wage worker would have to work full-time for an entire year just to cover the cost of tuition. If they are working that often, they will not have time or energy to receive the education they are slaving over. By the time a student graduates college, they will have paid for and/or owe over $36,000 for tuition alone. They will also need to pay for textbooks, transportation, housing, meal plans, student fees, and supplies as well. Because of the insane cost of college, families will refrain from using a significant amount of their income in order to save for college or are forced to take out loans that will devastate them for years after. There is an incredible amount of scholarships but there are also millions of students, several of whom do not meet the requirements to obtain them. Nonetheless, they should still be given a shot at going to college. Either way, it discourages millions from trying to obtain a higher education; only 68.4 percent of high school graduates going on to college in 2014. Germany has taken the initiative in eliminating tuition because they believed the cost discouraged Germans from going to college. Countries such as Finland, Norway, and Sweden already offer free college to all their citizens and soon Chile will too. Providing students with free tuition will motivate them to attend college and focus on their work without having the burden of paying ridiculous amounts of money to receive higher