Battle lines: 2025 Agenda vs Bernie Sander's vision for America; if we must have one or the other, the choice is easy

I’ve had this in my draft folder for a couple of days now while I considered whether to post it. Then I saw just now that Bernie’s giving a stump speech in which he promises to impose a national rent control program, which is what set me off in the first place, so I’ve cut and saved a very long essay on “The Rise and Fall of Socialism” and going with this (much) shorter version.

Biden begins touting 'working-class' agenda on advice of Bernie Sanders: report

President Biden has begun focusing on a ‘working-class’ agenda on the advice of Senator Bernie Sanders, according to a recent report in the Washington Post.

The Post reported on Saturday that Sanders visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss a potential second Biden term. Speaking to the President's closest advisors, the Vermont senator reportedly argued that Biden should focus on a 100-day plan aimed at "working class" voters.

In a social media post on Friday, Sanders claimed that Biden will enact a number of progressive policies – including ending all medical debt and raising the minimum wage – if elected to a second term.

"At a time when the billionaire class has never done better, and when we are experiencing unprecedented income and wealth inequality, President Biden tonight laid out an agenda that begins to speak to the needs of America’s working class," the tweet read.

Sanders also added that Biden would expand Social Security and Medicare benefits, lower the cost of childcare and build more affordable housing if elected, among other initiatives. On Friday night, Biden pledged to end all medical debt at a rally in Michigan. 

Biden Promises National Rent Control

“We’re going to make sure that rents are kept at 5% increase in corporate rents for apartments and the like. Homes are limited to 5%.”

Assar Lindbeck, the late left-wing Swedish economist who for many years chaired the committee that awarded the Nobel Prize, famously said: “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city–except for bombing.”

Economist David R. Henderson disputes that – he argues based on the experience of Vietnam that rent control is worse than bombing. Either way, it’s really bad.