Comedy Central host Jon Stewart explained the impact subsidies have on prices to independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont during a Monday appearance on “The Daily Show” while discussing the government shutdown.
The federal government entered a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Oct. 1 after the Senate failed to pass a continuing resolution, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. This came after the House of Representatives passed the short-term funding bill on Sept. 19.
During the discussion, Stewart talked about Democrats’ demands for over $1 trillion in funding for various priorities, including continuing enhanced payouts for Obamacare, with Sanders. He explained how subsidies can increase prices for consumers.
“What happens is, when the government promises endless funds to insurance companies or private universities without any cost controls — and Trump seems to understand this — prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation. We have seen this in tuition, pharmaceuticals, and health care. So my question is, will Democrats recognize the poison pill that they have often placed into well-intentioned policy?” Stewart asked Sanders.
Sanders responded, “Right, right. What they end up doing is coming up with very complicated proposals. You make $48,964, you will get this thing, make a dollar more, blah, blah, blah.”
He continued, “Listen, we have to make it simple. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, should health care be a human right? Yes, it should be. Should we have the best quality education in the world, from childcare to graduate school? Yes, we should.”
A 2017 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that for every dollar of financial aid provided through federal programs, college tuitions increased by 60 cents. Former Sallie Mae CEO Al Lord admitted in a 2021 Wall Street Journal interview that student-loan programs enabled the steep increases in college tuition since the 1980s.
In a related development, the University of Santa Clara announced it would increase financial aid after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act limited loans for professional education like law and medical school to $50,000. The university plans to provide each new student a $16,000 scholarship, effectively reducing tuition from $63,280 to $47,280, according to Reuters.
After pausing due to audience applause, Sanders launched into a critique targeting so-called “oligarchs.”
“You know, what we need is a very simple, straightforward agenda, which says, by the way, this is really the sticking point: you’ve got to finally say to the oligarchs, who have never ever had it so good — they are making hand over fist — all right, you got to say to them, ‘Sorry, guys, a billion dollars is enough. You ain’t going to have $200 billion or $300 billion. Try to survive on a mere billion. You will start paying your fair share of taxes!’” Sanders said as the audience applauded and cheered.
According to the Tax Foundation, the top 1% of income earners in the United States — those making $682,577 a year or more in 2024 — accounted for 26.3% of adjusted gross income and paid 45.8% of all federal income taxes.
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