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Opinion: The Washington Post's attack on Bernie Sanders is bunk

The Washington Post has published articles criticizing Bernie Sanders. The arguments made typically leave out vital information and alternatives.

The Washington Post just ran an聽聽on Bernie Sanders that distorts not only what he鈥檚 saying and seeking but also the basic choices that lie before the nation. 聽Sanders, writes the Post鈥檚 David Fahrenthold, 鈥渋s not just a big-spending liberal. And his agenda is not just about money. It鈥檚 also about control.鈥�

Fahrenthold claims Sanders鈥檚 plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean 鈥渃olleges would run by government rules.鈥澛�

Apparently Fahrenthold is unaware that three-quarters of college students today attend public universities financed largely by state governments. And even those who attend elite private universities benefit from federal tax subsidies flowing to wealthy donors. (Meg Whitman鈥檚 recent $30 million donation to Princeton, for example, is really $20 million from her plus an estimated $10 million she deducted from her taxable income.) Notwithstanding all this government largesse, colleges aren鈥檛 鈥渞un by government rules.鈥�

The real problem is too many young people still can鈥檛 afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and was extended in the 1960s by leading public universities was reversed starting in the 1980s because of shrinking state budgets. Tuition has skyrocketed in recent years as states slashed education spending. It鈥檚 time to resurrect that earlier goal.

Besides, the biggest threats to academic freedom these days aren鈥檛 coming from government. They鈥檙e coming as conditions attached to funding from billionaires and big corporations that鈥檚 increasing as聽public funding drops.聽

When the Charles Koch Foundation pledged $1.5 million to Florida State University鈥檚 economics department, for example, itthat a Koch-appointed advisory committee would select professors and undertake annual evaluations.聽 The Koch brothers now fund 350 programs at over 250 colleges and universities across America. You can bet that funding doesn鈥檛 underwrite research on inequality and environmental justice.

Fahrenthold similarly claims Sanders鈥檚 plan for a single-payer system would put healthcare under the 鈥渃ontrol鈥� of government.聽

But health care is already largely financed through government subsidies 鈥� only they鈥檙e flowing to private for-profit health insurers that are now busily consolidating into corporate laviathans. Anthem聽purchase of giant insurer Cigna will make it the largest health insurer in America; Aetna is buying Humana, creating the聽with尘别尘产别谤蝉.听

Why should anyone suppose these for-profit corporate giants will be less 鈥渃ontrolling鈥� than government?

What we do know is they鈥檙e far more expensive than a single-payer system. Fahrenthold repeats the charge that Sanders鈥檚 healthcare plan would cost $15 trillion over ten years. But single-payer systems in other rich nations have proven cheaper than private for-profit health insurers because they don鈥檛 spend huge sums on advertising, marketing, executive pay, and billing.聽

So even if the Sanders single-payer plan would cost $15 trillion over ten years, Americans as a whole would save more than that. 聽

Fahrenthold trusts the 鈥渕arket鈥� more than he does the government but he overlooks the fact that government sets the rules by which the market runs (such as whether health insurers should be allowed to consolidate even further, or how much of a 鈥渃haritable鈥� tax deduction聽wealthy donors to private universities should receive, and whether they should get the deduction if they attach partisan conditions to their donations).聽

The real choice isn鈥檛 between government and the 鈥渕arket.鈥� It鈥檚 between a system responsive to the needs of most Americans, or one more responsive to the demands of the super-rich, big business, and Wall Street 鈥� whose economic and political power have grown dramatically over the last three decades.

This is why the logic of Sanders鈥檚 ideas depends on the political changes he seeks. Fahrenthold says a President Sanders couldn鈥檛 get any of his ideas implemented anyway because Congress would reject them. But if Bernie Sanders is elected president, American politics will have been altered, reducing the moneyed interests鈥� chokehold over the public agenda.聽

Fahrenthold may not see the populism that鈥檚 fueling Bernie鈥檚 campaign, but it is gaining strength and conviction. Other politicians, as well as political reporters, ignore this upsurge at their peril.