It would cost the average U.S. household more than $350,000 over the next 10 years – and lower the life expectancy of citizens – if the policies of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are adopted, a study by the Council of Economic Advisers released Friday finds.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers released a report revealing the severe economic cost – $49 TRILLION, over $350,000 per household – for American taxpayers over the next ten years if the Democratic Socialists of America’s top policies were adopted,” a post on the White House website announced Friday.
The report titled, “The Real Cost of Socialism in America,” details “the scathing reality of their destructive policies,” the White House explains:
"The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have offered an alternative vision, one relying on taking resources from workers and entrepreneurs or taxing the income of future generations to finance massive spending today. The Council of Economic Advisers took them at their word, examined their policy proposals, and, in the chapters that follow, scored how much their economic agenda would cost the country."
The report examine the economic effects of eight key DSA policies:
(1) cancellation of all student debt and free college tuition,
(2) open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens,
(3) abolishing the police and prison system,
(4) Medicare for All,
(5) universal rent control,
(6) the Green New Deal,
(7) a 32-hour workweek mandate, and
(8) a 5 percent annual wealth tax on billionaires.
CEA’s analysis found that the cost to the American public would be enormous:
“The net fiscal burden of the seven programs that can be scored against the federal budget would total more than $49 trillion over ten years, which would be financed either by debt or by tax increases on the American people. This amounts to approximately $355,000 per American household.”
The report examines the two ways that price tag might be financed.
If the DSA promises are financed by deficit spending (taking on additional government debt), inflation would increase to double-digit levels, with cumulative excess inflation of 130 to 160 percentage points over ten years, increasing costs for Americans.
If the DSA promises are instead financed by increasing taxes on hardworking Americans, CEA estimates that the tax hikes would lower U.S. economic output (real annual GDP) by 14.6 percent in perpetuity. “This is driven by fewer machines, fewer factories, and less intellectual property, and by a 16.2 percent fall in total labor hours—less employment,” the CEA report notes.
The CEA also assessed the impact of implementing the DSA’s public-safety platform of abolishing the police, reclassifying offenses as misdemeanors, eliminating cash bail, and shortening sentences, determining that it would result in 1,000 additional crimes per 100,000 people per year – and shorten the life expectancy of those living in those lawless areas:
“A 110-day decrease in the average life expectancy of the people living in these communities (2.5 years when the additional crime is violent).”
