White House releases eye-popping cost estimate for DSA platform as socialism becomes 2026 camapign issue

WASHINGTON — The White House is preparing to release a study assessing that policies pushed by the Democratic Socialists of America would cost $49 trillion over the next decade — as Republican attacks on the left-wing group’s rising prominence become a significant midterm issue.The White House Council of Economic Advisers, led by economist Christopher Phelan, has drafted a report titled “The Real Cost of Socialism in America” evaluating seven major policies in the DSA’s “Workers Deserve More” platform released in July.“This works out to a cost of approximately $355,000 per American household,” the CEA assessed.“That burden would have to be financed either by borrowing or by tax increases, both with dramatically costly [effects] to Americans pocketbooks, and CEA scored both paths.”Almost all of the added cost comes from an estimated $49.4 trillion price tag for “Medicare for All,” assuming that there are no premiums paid by users.

The sum would be “partly offset by $2.8 trillion in administrative and $4.3 trillion in federal Medicaid savings.”Advocates of single-payer insurance argue it would save individual Americans by replacing their private insurance policies, though opponents point to inefficiency, long wait times and limited services in other countries.The concept failed to gain traction in 2010 during the last major health overhaul debate.Canceling all student debt and making undergraduate education free would cost $3.6 trillion, while ending ICE deportations and amnesty programs could cost $530 billion.A DSA-proposed 32-hour work week would cost the feds about $920 billion, Green New Deal policies another $370 billion and a universal 1.5% cap on rent increases $16 billion.A proposed wealth tax, meanwhile, would bring in $3.94 trillion over 10 years, assuming a 5% annual tax on wealth above $1 billion.The CEA assessed ancillary effects of a wealth tax, writing: “Americans’ real wages fall 2.5 percent, about $1,700 a year f...