Sanders unveils $2.5 trillion 'Housing for All' plan

[Uncle Joe]

Sanders said the plan would “guarantee every American — regardless of income — a fundamental right to a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home” and would be paid for by a wealth tax on the top one-tenth of 1 percent of income earners.

(snip)

Sanders’s plan seeks to invest $1.48 trillion over 10 years in the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund to build and maintain 7.4 million “quality, affordable and accessible housing units” that he says will eliminate the gap in affordable housing for the lowest-income renters. It would also invest another $400 billion to build 2 million mixed-income social housing units.

He also intends to use the plan to end homelessness by prioritizing 25,000 National Affordable Housing Trust Fund units to house the homeless in his first year in office and provide $500 million to state and local governments to help connect the homeless to case management and social services.

(snip)

Sanders’s campaign, much like his 2016 bid, has made a benchmark issue of income and advantage disparities between upper-class and working-class Americans. The Vermont Independent first introduced legislation in 2001 to create the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is now funded through a small percentage of revenues from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored housing agencies.

(snip)

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461942-sanders-unveils-25-trillion-housing-plan

[enid602]

1. Polls

We’ll see if this helps his slipping polls.

[MythosMaster]

19. How's Harris doing in the poles?

I do not believe the poles are worth a toss.

[enid602]

24. Harris

Poorly. Maybe she should propose a few more multi trillion dollar projects. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

[emmaverybo]

27. I really respect that she's not piling on like some multi-trillionaire venture capitalist. On our

dime! A plan in every pot. Integrity. Not promising what can’t be delivered.

[enid602]

30. Programs

I just can’t believe that so many of the candidates are promising multi trillion dollar programs, when I’m sure at some level they know that our present projected 1.5 trillion deficit makes our ability to fulfill Medicare, Medicare and Social Security obligations MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Our united goal on Day One should be to reverse tRump’s tax legislation, but it’s been in effect for over two years and not a word about it. The republicans immediately invented the Tea Party to get rid of Obamacare. What are we doing to get rid of the tax law?

[emmaverybo]

32. Biden said he would roll the giveaways back, but today i saw that he was going to raise the

corporate tax, but not as high as to pre 2017 levels.

He did say right away, work on the tax breaks for rich. Not enough saying it. Let's hear more.

You are singing my song! Why do they not see how the Social Safety Net AS IS is so under threat!! And so many social programs throughout the US. Meals on wheels is going under. The federal child
lunch program suffering cuts.

The deficit! You said it well. Mathematically impossible.

[guillaumeb]

2. Safe and affordable housing should be a human right.

FDR proposed an economic bill of rights.

[emmaverybo]

34. Also Japanese internment camps and a brutal immigration policy that turned away hundreds of

thousands of Jews trying to escape Europe in the run up to the holocaust. He did not think black
people had the right to not be lynched.

[NurseJackie]

3. Uh-huh.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Uh-huh

[George II]

4. I read his "plan" on his site (he sent out an email this morning) - not a word about.....

...how he intends on getting that $2.5 trillion.

[comradebillyboy]

9. The same place he's going to get the other 40-50 trillion

he's already promised for his other fantasy land proposals.

[Blue_true]

33. Look just above at NurseJackie's post. nt

[BannonsLiver]

5. This is disqualifying.

[oldsoftie]

7. I see where you've been!! Ha!

[peggysue2]

18. LOL!!

But too true. The disqualifying headlines are getting wearisome, repetitive and really dumb.

Makes for a good laugh/snark though!

[oldsoftie]

8. So this, added with his other proposals, total how much per year? 2 trillion? 3?

Likely about 1/2 of what we are already spending now. And youre NOT going to pay for all that taxing only 15000 families.
THE MATH DOES NOT WORK. It doesnt work for Warren either, but her programs are at least less expensive.

[NurseJackie]

11. You're correct... the math does not work. (We can't all be Oprah.)

[oldsoftie]

13. Perfect

[emmaverybo]

28. LOL! That's it!

[FBaggins]

10. I supported him four years ago... but this doesn't add up

Even if all 7.4 million units were available in the first year... that's still $20,000 per unit per year. And that's just for reduced rent... he isn't saying it's given away for free.

There is virtually no place in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a decent two bedroom apartment.

Look... I get the "two chickens in every pot" campaigning - but are we really saying that minimum wage ought to be enough to afford a decent two bedroom apartment?

Who lives in the cheaper two-bedroom apartments? Who rents a one-bedroom? Who shares an apartment with a friend from school? Who rents a spare bedroom in someone's basement? Who needs to go to college (or even finish highschool) if flipping burgers is enough to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment?

[George II]

12. When I was just out of college and getting my feet on the ground, I lived in two studio apartments..

...(one room, bathroom and kitchenette) and an apartment in someone's basement.

I struggled at first, but I made it.

[Blue_true]

39. Because I was an engineer.

I was able to get a nice one bedroom apartment right out of college. Took a couple months to get furniture, but I was ok sleeping on the floor.

The thing that I see with both residential and commercial rents is that as a location grows and becomes more prosperous, rents go up. But we also see fewer mobile home parks in those places (housing is generally of better quality). The challenge that is before us is to have a situation where a person on a livable wage for an area can afford a decent roof over his or her head. Maybe we should fund and maintain a roommate registry so that people can find compatible roommates (no partiers rooming with work and rest types, ect). I don't think that it is a bad idea that adults have roommates in expensive places, that has lots of benefits like sharing food costs.

Government has a role in keeping rents low, but not through rent control. I prefer government financially backing landlords that make and keep a pledge to offer good quality rental property at a rate that is affordable for an average worker or small business. But the landlord should have control over selecting tenants, as long as they don't discriminate by race, gender, sexual orientation. I think that it is ok for a landlord to require that a person be a citizen or legal resident, but the landlord would also have the option to rent to responsible people that are not.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Here are more details on Bernie's housing plans.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/housing-all/

[BlueMississippi]

23. Hey - you're in fantasyland right now.

Don't make the experience unpleasant by bringing reality into it.

[floppyboo]

25. 'if flipping burgers is enough...' that's a joke, right?

Given the opportunity, IMO, humans are programmed to create, explore, grow. Not be satisfied flipping burgers. Great job while your back and knees can take it.

[SWBTATTReg]

15. Perhaps the better solution is to not promise the world for college costs, housing costs, ...

medical costs, etc., but to simply give better pay?

[Uncle Joe]

16. I don't believe so,

the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts.

[SWBTATTReg]

17. Oh really. So you throw this saying back at me that the 'whole' is greater than the sum blah...

blah blah. If people had better pay, then you would have less demand for government aid for kids going to college, people paying their medical bills, or able to afford housing. Rather simplistic, isn't it? Perhaps you can clarify your remarks a little better than some stupid slogan.

[NYMinute]

22. shhhhhhhhhhhhh .. wait a bit

A $13 trillion wage-increase plan is coming up.

Good things come to those who wait. At least as a euphemism.

In reality, waiting won't even pass any of those plans even through a committee.

[MineralMan]

20. A Trillion Here, A Trillion There...Pretty soon you're talking

about big money....

[NYMinute]

21. It would be easier if he came up with an "everything for everyone" plan

costing a measly, paltry, infinitesimal, microscopic 200 trillion dollars.

[NYC Democrat]

26. I think Sanders proposals are starting to get close to total global GDP all put together.

[emmaverybo]

29. Oh you made me chuckle.

[ecstatic]

38. It's OK! He's going to print money to cover all the costs!

Problem solved!

[GulfCoast66]

31. Wrong message.

I think a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage would fire up the base more!

[George II]

35. I've been talking about that chicken in every pot since 2015....

[SKKY]

36. If some of the printing technology I've seen recently matures quickly...

...and the costs can be lowered, it seems doable. But I honestly think Bernie is just throwing a bunch of very expensive spaghetti on the wall, hoping something sticks. He’s headed to a 4th or 5th place finish in Iowa. At best.

[ecstatic]

37. YOU get a project! And YOU get a project!