NY Post Editorial Board Shreds Bernie Sanders’ ‘Magic Math’: ‘Pay with Unicorn Dust’

The New York Post editorial board unleashed on socialist senator and Democrat frontrunner Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Friday, ripping his grandiose plans to spend trillions and drastically expand the size of government and mocking his recently released fact sheet — which supposedly addresses cost concerns of his various proposals — as not even passing the “laugh test.”

The editorial board took aim at Sanders over his recently released fact sheet, in which he attempts to explain how he will fund his “major” multitrillion-dollar campaign proposals like “free” college, universal child care, housing for all, and the Green New Deal. Summed up, Sanders plans to pay for his costly proposals by increasing taxes (and creating new ones), enacting penalties on the fossil fuel industry, and slashing military spending. He also contends that his $16.3 trillion Green New Deal plan will create 20 million jobs, thereby resulting in a new tax base and additional government revenue.

“No one’s surprised that the numbers don’t remotely add up — or even pass the laugh test,” the Post’s editorial board writes, noting that his fact sheet only covers 10-year costs for a handful of his major proposals:

Independent estimates from progressive outfits like the Urban Institute put the price for Medicare for All at well over $30 trillion. Sanders insists it will cost half that because he’ll magically cut costs.

It adds up to easily doubling what the federal government spends now.

And all his new taxes only bring in about half what he means to spend.

Assuming they work as intended: Of course he pretends they wouldn’t slow the economy in the least. (Hey, it worked in … well, nowhere, but Bernie doesn’t care.)

The Post also dismantles Sanders’ claim of his Green New Deal creating millions of new jobs, noting that his “fracking ban and other economic plans would plainly kill jobs.”

“It’s all piffle, because common sense is irrelevant to Bernie Sanders’ agenda: For decades, he’s been posturing about how socialism can save America, and his act is finally clicking with enough Democrats that he’s the front-runner for the nomination,” the board writes.

This is far from the first major newspaper to cast doubt on Sanders’ vision. The Las Vegas Weekly warned, ahead of the Nevada caucuses, which Sanders won, that a “Sanders candidacy simply guarantees a Trump second term.”

Even the leftist New York Times refused to endorse Sanders, essentially dissing the 78-year-old socialist as old and unhealthy.

Nonetheless, Sanders is leading the Democrat field nationally and is expected to have a strong showing on Super Tuesday, where a trove of pledged delegates will be up for grabs, bringing him that much closer to the Democrat nomination.