After last night’s town hall event on CNN where the Democrat candidates took a final opportunity to address the voters in Iowa, I came away with yet another thing to like about Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders. If nothing else, the guy has the admirable trait of honesty going for him. When the moderator asked if he wouldn’t need to jack up tax rates to put all of his wild eyed proposals into effect, he provided the sort of clarity we so rarely see in politicians. Of course he’s going to raise taxes! (Daily Caller)

Monday during the Democratic Forum hosted by CNN and moderated by Chris Cuomo, Sanders said, “Yes, we will raise, we will raise the, we will raise taxes, yes we will.”

Sanders suggested, “But also, let us be clear Chris [Cuomo], because there’s a little bit of disingenuity out there. We may raise taxes but we are also going to eliminate private health insurance premiums for individuals and for businesses.”

Speaking of a little bit of disingenuity, the part that Bernie failed to mention is that his proposals add up to a staggering $18T over ten years. Even with the massive tax hikes he’s talking about, they only cover roughly $6.5T in new revenue over the same period. Now, math wasn’t my major in school, but wiser heads have already determined that this would be the largest expansion of national spending and debt since the massive buildup during World War 2. But unlike other politicians, Sanders was willing to own up to a piece of the tax hike, so he’s got that going for him.

I wonder if he realizes that he couldn’t even get the Democrats in Congress to sign on for those levels of taxes and spending?

For some reason, this reminded me of the “touching moment” during one of Bernie’s events which everyone was talking about yesterday. It took place when a young woman described how hard it was to raise children on her own on an income of $12K per year.

It’s so hard to do anything to pay your bills, you’re ashamed all the time…when you can’t buy presents for your children it’s really really really hard – and I work 3, 4, 5 jobs sometimes, always minimum wage, I have a degree, divorced and it’s just I’m waiting for disability to come through so my parents have to support me – it’s just hard.

The woman was clearly depressed and had a lot on her mind, but if you watch the video at the link you’ll see that Bernie missed out on a couple of opportunities here. For one thing, he stayed at the podium rather than going down to comfort her one on one. But in terms of this tax policy discussion, there was another piece of low hanging fruit he missed. Just think how much better it would have been if Sanders had walked up to the woman, put his hand on her shoulder, and said, “Don’t worry, young lady. After my plans go into effect the rest of the country will be in the same boat as you so we can all commiserate together. Well… not actually me, of course. I’ll be living in a mansion overlooking the reflecting pool making a half million a year. But the rest of you shall stand in solidarity.”

Man… I missed my calling. I should be his speech writer.