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OPINION

It’s Not A Bribe When You Use Other People’s Money

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
It’s Not A Bribe When You Use Other People’s Money
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

There are people in prison right now for bribery. Judges have been removed from the bench for taking bribes, and people sent to cells for extended periods for offering and/or accepting them. So why aren’t the candidates running for the nomination for the Democratic Party for president among them?

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You name it, and there’s a Democratic candidate out there offering to give it to people if they’d just vote for them. How is that not bribery?

Want free college? Done, just vote for candidate X, Y, or Z.

Want your student loans “forgiven”? You got it, just vote for one of the candidates promising just that.

Sick of paying for rent? Health insurance? Cable? Cell phones? Food? Housing? You can find a Democrat somewhere who’ll swear it’s all yours, and “for free,” if you simply mark their name on your ballot.

Hell, there’s even one candidate who says they’ll just give you cash, $1,000 per month, if you elect him. He doesn’t call it a bribe, he calls it a “freedom dividend,” but it sure sounds like a bribe.

In total, the Democratic field is offering tens of trillions of dollars in bribes to voters if they’d just pick them to be president. But they are not bribes, they’re new and expanded government programs. Apparently it’s not a bribe if you offer people someone else’s money.

The latest entrant to the charade is Bernie Sanders. This week he offered everyone with student loan debt (of which I am one) a “get out of responsibility card.” He introduced a bill to wipe clean the slate for everyone, no matter how much they owed, and create “tuition-free” college. Since it won’t become law with Donald Trump in the White House, implicit in his introduction of the bill is the condition that you can only get this goodie if you elect him. A big pile of someone else’s cash awaits you, if you vote for him.

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DEMOCRATS

The estimated cost? A staggering $2.2 trillion. Elizabeth Warren has a similar plan, so you’ve got competing offers for your vote if you have outstanding student loans.

An even bigger bribe is offered to people who want “free” health insurance. Every Democrat has some kind of “Medicare for all” plan promising to remove the responsibility of paying for expensive premiums if you’d just check their name. The cost of that plan is literally tens of trillions of dollars, and they’re all screaming that they’ll cut you a check for a slice of that pie on the condition that you support them.

If you want to think bigger, if you want to “save the planet,” they’ve got a bribe for you there too. Like the worst episode of “The Price Is Right,” an unlimited wad of someone else’s money is just calling your name with the friendly sounding title of a “green new deal.” That involves all kinds of goodies for your vote – jobs, subsidized electricity, cars, you name it.

Of course, nothing is free. These bribes don’t have associated bank accounts with them stuffed with ready cash waiting for the vault doors to be opened by one of Drew Carey’s beauties, they’re being offered through the power of the printing press. Actually, they’re being offered through the power of your grandchildren and great grandchildren’s credit cards.

With more than $22 trillion in debt already on the books, our money is gone, as is our kid’s money, long before anyone has earned it. They’re a couple of generations out, digging through the wallets of the future to promise the Sun, the Moon, and the stars in exchange for their victory.

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Will the American people fall for it? It’s awfully tempting to have so much offered for just a little piece of your soul. It’s a bribe many won’t be able to refuse.

As Democrats officially start the campaign debate season this week, pay attention to dollar amounts and what’s being offered by the candidates. It won’t be called a bribe, it’ll be called “progress,” but make no mistake – it’s a bribe.

But don’t follow their example and try this in your life. Just as if you kept a corporation’s books the way the government handles its accounting, you’d end up in jail, the people who write the laws were very careful to exempt themselves from the legal definition of a bribe for the purpose of buying votes. They’ve always done it, they’ve just never done it so blatantly.

The “Woke Olympics” have just started, hold on to your wallets.

Derek is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses.

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