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.
