Bernie and the "Free" Stuff

Sounds like a band, doesn’t it: Bernie and the Free Stuff? But, actually, those of us on the Right know that nothing is free. If I give you a present for your birthday, it’s free gift for you, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t pay for it!

I’m probably dating myself here, but I grew up on The Brady Bunch, both the original series, and re-runs ad nauseum. One of my favorite episodes had to do with Greg Brady and his “exact words.” His Houdini-like ability to worm his way out of trouble came because he insisted, time and again, those weren’t his parents’ “exact words.”

This, in turn, has led to many valuable teaching moments with my children, and for fun, we recently watched the episode on YouTube. Now they love to crack up when I talk about “exact words!”

Maybe if we used “exact words,” people would begin to understand Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda in much clearer terms:

• “Free” college would become “college by taxpayer-mandated funding.”

• “Free” healthcare would become “Tax rates at 90% so we can shove poor quality care with long wait times down your throat.”

• "Free" childcare would become "government-sponsored child warehouses."

It’s not very sexy nomenclature, and thus takes a bit of the allure away. It sounds so very enlightened of us to say, in our country, we hand out “free” things willy-nilly like the T-shirt cannon at a sporting event. But someone underwrites those T-shirts, just like Americans will be mandated to pay through the nose, for these “free” things. And, what, may I ask, has the government ever run well? Social Security? The Postal Service? VA Hospitals? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Greg Brady may have been on to something, but sadly, should Senator Sanders win, America will be the one, if I may paraphrase, to “Feel the Burn.”

-- Marie

Photo credit: berniementum.blogspot.com