Government cannot grant dignity: DSA proposals carry a $49 trillion cost and erode the economic freedom that dignity depends on
Source: "White House CEA report prices DSA socialist policies at $49 trillion | Fox News." October 16, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
The author says a White House report puts the price of the DSA's big policy ideas at $49 trillion over ten years, but argues the real issue is freedom. Drawing on her experience in Cuba, she says government can't hand out dignity, and giving it more control over healthcare, wages and housing means people lose independence. She wants smaller government and free markets to tackle the same problems.
Conclusion
Americans should reject the expansive government programs promoted by Democratic Socialists of America, and favor smaller government, lower taxes, fewer regulations and free markets, because dignity is an individual right that government cannot supply and expanding government control reduces rather than increases people's control over their lives.
Premises
- A White House Council of Economic Advisers report estimates that seven major DSA proposals (including Medicare for All, student debt cancellation and free college, a 32-hour workweek, Green New Deal policies, and rent control) would cost over $49 trillion over a decade, roughly $355,000 per American household.
- Socialism has failed to deliver dignity where it has been implemented; in Cuba, the author's own experience shows it produced misery, shortages and human-rights violations.
- Expanding government control over healthcare, wages and hours, and housing means government decisions determine the resources people depend on, and a government that can grant dignity can also take it away.
- Dignity is an individual right grounded in economic independence (the ability to work, earn, save, build, own and make decisions), so it cannot be manufactured or distributed by government.
- The real problems DSA targets (expensive healthcare, housing costs, economic insecurity) can be addressed by alternatives that leave more decisions with individuals: smaller, more accountable government, lower and simpler taxes, fewer regulations, and free markets.
Assumptions
- The CEA cost estimate is methodologically sound and its figures fairly represent what the DSA proposals would cost, without accounting for offsetting savings or benefits.
- Cuba's experience of socialism is a reliable predictor of the outcomes of the DSA's policy agenda in the United States.
- Democratic socialist proposals in a democratic system with free elections are equivalent in kind to government control in an authoritarian one-party state.
- Government provision of services necessarily reduces individual economic independence and freedom.
- Free-market and limited-government alternatives will adequately solve the healthcare, housing and economic-insecurity problems the author concedes are real.
- Dignity is defined primarily by economic independence rather than by material security or access to basic needs.