Bernie Sanders has rocketed to the top of the democratic presidential primary field
by proposing a massive expansion of government.
Single payer health care, free public college tuition, student loan forgiveness,
universal pre-k, and more.
His plans could cost as much as 60 trillion dollars over the next decade,
more than doubling the federal budget.
But more than any single policy, Sanders has run on an idea,
Democratic Socialism, with Scandinavian countries as models.
At times in his life however, he's also had kind words for socialist revolutionairies,
and regimes that are far more authoritarian, even though he has condemned
their harshest practices.
Here to talk with me today about Sanders' vision of Democratic Socialism,
and what it could mean in this country, is Jim Pethokoukis.
He's the Dewitt Wallace fellow at the America Enterprise Institute,
where he writes and edits the AEI Ideas blog.