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Opinion
The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
News / Opinion / Letters to the Editor

Letter: Sanders’ promises have a price tag

By JoAnn Gates, Battle Ground
Published: February 12, 2016, 6:00am

In the news, there’s talk about the younger people supporting Bernie Sanders, supposedly because he tells them he’s going to give them free college education. What he doesn’t say is how he’ll pay for it.

As one who has traveled to many other countries, I’m aware of free college education for students there. But workers pay at least 40 percent of their wages to taxes to pay for that education, which keeps the standard of living low for most of them. Many countries have socialized medicine, too, and it’s paid for by very high taxes.

In many other countries, there are the very rich and the very poor, with not many in between. Our politicians purport to want to change that here so that the middle class is more prevalent. The very rich will have to be taxed more; then they argue that why should the very rich pay more than their share? The higher the income, the higher the percentage of taxation should be.

Why should the middle class be the ones who pay for people living on the street to have new “homes,” for welfare babies, for health care for illegal aliens, when they’re struggling to stay in the middle class? Our young people need to realize there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

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