Posted by Open MInded on October 14, 2015, 6:27 pm, in reply to "Re: Democrip debate"
So what is the purpose of these early debates if not to provide the voters with some insight into where the candidates stand on various issues and/or ideas they may have? Are they afraid another candidate will steal their "plan"?
I don't know if the "free college" plan is financially feasible, but it is an idea, a vision, something to at least consider. Homeowners pay for K-12 education whether they have kids or not and, if they do have kids, they still pay long after their kids are grown. Unless you sent your kids to private school, lots of people helped pay for their pre college education.
As far as how it's paid for here's a copy and paste from Bernie's plan:
Fully Paid for by Imposing a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street. This legislation is offset by imposing a Wall Street speculation fee on investment houses, hedge funds, and other speculators of 0.5% on stock trades (50 cents for every $100 worth of stock), a 0.1% fee on bonds, and a 0.005% fee on derivatives. It has been estimated that this provision could raise hundreds of billions a year which could be used not only to make tuition free at public colleges and universities in this country, it could also be used to create millions of jobs and rebuild the middle class of this country.
So if that would fund it (and I'm not saying it would, I honestly don't know) --- what would be the downside?