Angry Man Who Resents Your Choices of Deodorant and Sneakers Doesn't Mind $38,000 a Day in Security
Bernie Sanders isn't campaigning anymore but he hasn't suspended his campaign, thus keeping himself eligible for protection.
While Hillary Clinton has effectively clinched the nomination, Bernie Sanders remains the race. There are no more primaries or caucuses scheduled between now and the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in August. Even if super delegates from those states Bernie Sanders won switched their allegiance to him from Hillary Clinton he would not have enough delegates to win. Barring an event that incapacitates Clinton or disqualifies her from the nomination, Sanders doesn't have a chance. Someone waiting in the wings in case of worst case scenario isn't really a candidate anymore.
But he's still wasting taxpayer money. The Washington Post reports that while Sanders is no longer actively campaigning, his campaign remains active because he has not "suspended" it, and thus Sanders continues to receive up to $38,000 a day in secret service protection. Sanders has about as much chance of being the Democratic nominee as Ted Cruz has of being the Republican nominee. And given that Trump is more likely to precipitate a worst case scenario unprompted than Clinton, Sanders may have less of a chance even than Cruz, who is no longer receiving secret service protection, does.
The federal government burns through a billion dollars approximately every 150 minutes. The money spent on Sanders is chump change, but the additional money Sanders and his ideology demands the government take from the "rich" above the $6.66 million a minute the feds currently spend isn't.
Sanders made a big point in his campaign over the say he and his followers should have in how other people spend their money. Rather than being theft from the taxpayer, they view taxation as theft from the state. Sanders has rued the idea that there are so many choices of products like deodorant and sneakers in this country. "You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country," he said last May, displaying a stunning level of economic ignorance about the basic principles of increased consumer choices leading to increased prosperity.
Sanders' statement was highly dubious. What's not dubious is that Sanders, who is no longer actively campaigning for president and who has not particularly been the target of death threats, doesn't need to have $38,000 a day of taxpayers' money spent on him for secret service protection, irrespective of how many children are hungry in America.
Sanders' campaign manager says he Sanders could endorse Hillary before the convention but declined to explain the difference between endorsing another candidate and dropping out.
