How Bernie Sanders Would Pay for Free Education | Joe Rogan

Okay, let's talk about the education because the idea of free education is a wonderful thing for people. I mean, the idea that you get out of college and you're in debt in an insane amount that you might have 10, 20 years where you have to pay it back. And I know many people that are in this situation. Joe, there are people who are getting their social security checks garnished right now. It's not 10 to 20 years. Some cases it's literally a lifetime. Now a lot of that is – I mean, it's got to in some way be preventable by what we're talking about here. Absolutely. Is that how you would pay for it? I mean, how would you – I'll tell you exactly how we would pay for it. And we pay for every idea that we have. We pay for it. And we pay for it by understanding that today we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. And we have in many cases the wealthy and large corporations paying nothing but very little in taxes. Here is the issue in terms of education. 40, 50 years ago, you were an average American working class person. You graduated high school, especially if there was a union around. You can go out and get a job and make it into the middle class. You could own your own home. You could send your kids to school. You lived a pretty good life. You made it into the middle class. 40 or 50 years later, there's an explosion of technology. There's a growth in unfettered free trade. And it is clear now that most people to make it into the middle class are going to need a higher education. That's college or maybe it's technical training in order to become a skilled worker. It is insane to me to deny working class people and lower income people the opportunity to get that education because the cost of college has soared. So all that I say is that 100 plus years ago, the American people said that we should have free public education. I went to a public school. My parents didn't pay a nickel. Went to kindergarten. I went through the 12th grade. Pretty good education in Brooklyn, New York. All that I'm saying is the world has changed and a high school degree is not good enough anymore. So expand that concept through college. Now guess what? 50 years ago, the University of California, a very great university cost in terms of tuition. How much? Virtually free. What's it now? I don't know. But it's pretty high. It is high. It's thousands and thousands of dollars. So you had great universities like the University of California, City University of New York, state colleges all over this country where tuition was virtually free. And then what happened? For a variety of political reasons, states and the federal government started cutting back on higher education and put more and more burden on the student with higher and higher tuition, which is where we are today. So all that I'm saying is in the year 2019, 2020, if our working class kids are going to go out and get the jobs that are out there, they need a higher education, which should be tuition free, in terms of the cancellation of debt, which is my view. You got 45 million people who are dealing with debt. I'll never forget this. This is where it really hit me. I was in Burlington, Vermont. I had a meeting on an issue. And a young woman comes up and she says, she's a doctor. She graduated medical school. She's very happy. She's practicing in the community health center. Loves what she's doing. She said, Bernie, I got to tell you though, I am $300,000 in debt having gone to medical school. I couldn't believe it. I was in Iowa, a young woman, $400,000 in debt. This is not unusual for medical schools and dental schools. And ordinary people, $50,000, $100,000 for going to college or getting a master's degree. We promised these young people, we said, go to college. Go out and get an education. You'll get decent paying jobs. Well the answer is they have not been able to do that. So what we have proposed in one piece of legislation or two actually is to make public colleges and universities tuition free, cancel all student debt in this country. That will cost $2.2 trillion, a lot of money over a 10 year period. We do this through a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will bring in $2.4 trillion. We bailed out Wall Street 11 years ago. And by the way, these are crooks on Wall Street who engaged in legal behavior. Taxpayers against my vote bailed them out. If we can bail out Wall Street, you know what, we can cancel student debt and provide public colleges and universities tuition free. Trevor Burrus When you say a tax on Wall Street speculation, what exactly do you mean by that? Will there be a tax on all of the – every sale of a tax. People buy and sell stocks and bonds all of the time. We have a very modest tax on that. And by the way, it will have an impact on speculation by cutting back on the high frequency trading which we now see. Trevor Burrus So you would just – there's no current tax on this? Will there be a tax on the – Will there be a tax on the – Will there be a tax on the – Trevor Burrus Correct. Trevor Burrus So you would put a small amount and that would do the job? That would finance – Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? Will there be a small amount? 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I have a million Americans every single year go bankrupt because of medical bills that they can't pay. But you're right. With students – I talked to this guy in Nevada. I never forget it. He says, Bernie, you know, I'm all in my – the guy is in his 50s. And he said, you know, I've been paying off my student debt for years. I'm going nowhere because the interest rates are high. And I fear very much, which is the case, that they will start garnishing taking away my social security checks, taking money away from me. So people are carrying this burden. The result is that they can't in many cases get married and have kids. They certainly can't buy a home. They can't buy a car. They are really crushed by this debt. And what was their crime? What did they do? They tried to get a higher education. I think that's pretty crazy. Trevor Burrus And a lot of them, when they do this higher education, they're 18 years old. Imagine making a decision when your brain isn't even fully formed. It's going to affect you for the rest of your life. Will there be a small amount? Bernie Sanders You got it. Yeah, exactly right. How much debt do you owe? What kind of interest rates you're paying? Gee, I really don't know. They just told me to sign up. I'm sorry.