If Bernie Sanders is a Socialist then so is Nixon

"Basic Income" fun fact: The US almost implemented this back in the early 70s.

During his first administration, Nixon commissioned Pat Moynihan to examine the welfare state that FDR and LBJ had installed, and to try to figure out how to actually make it work, as Nixon had already figured out that if aggressive steps weren't taken, it would bankrupt the US almost immediately. Moynihan studied the issue from all angles and came back with the basic income idea. Moynihan discovered that a major component of the costs of the US welfare state were the costs of administration of benefits, and not the costs of the benefits themselves. A "basic income" would essentially eliminate the bureaucracy. Moynihan ran the numbers, discovered that this scheme would save huge amounts of money and would actually make the system budgetarily sustainable, and put a bill together to run through Congress. The bill was shot down by a peculiar alliance of far-right republicans and far-left democrats. The republicans opposed the idea on general principles, and the democrats opposed it because they recognized that a huge amount of cushy bureaucratic jobs would be eliminated.

When the bill failed, Nixon then proceeded to his last option: close the gold window, as the US was now effectively bankrupt.

Remember Nixon also had the brains to stand up to his own party and tax the rich at 72%. Bernie Sanders proposed 44% tax rate is relatively benign compared to Nixon. The scary thing about Nixon is he couldn't run as either a Republican or Democrat today because he is too far to the left. Richard Nixon is a socialist by today's standards. That is how off kilter our political system is today.