The Democratic Socialists of America, the far-left organization steadily gaining influence over the Democratic Party’s ballot line, has built its platform on an ambitious list of promises: Medicare for All, a 32-hour workweek, universal rent control, open borders, and a Green New Deal. A new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers puts a number on those promises, and the total is staggering enough to reshape the entire federal budget for a generation.

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The CEA’s report, titled “The Real Cost of Socialism in America,” breaks down each major DSA policy and estimates what American taxpayers would owe to fund it. Medicare for All tops the list at approximately $47.41 trillion over a decade, a figure driven by roughly $49.4 trillion in additional federal healthcare spending only partly offset by savings elsewhere. The report also projects a 22 percent decline in medical productivity, a measure of health outcomes relative to money spent on care, meaning Americans would pay dramatically more for a healthcare system that delivers less per dollar invested.

Student debt cancellation and free tuition would add another $3.6 trillion over ten years, according to the CEA’s estimate, though more conservative projections put the figure closer to $2.1 trillion. The report notes an equity problem buried inside that policy: the wealthiest fifth of American households holds roughly 34 percent of all student debt, compared with just 8 percent held by the poorest fifth. A policy marketed as helping struggling borrowers would, in practice, disproportionately benefit households that are already financially secure.

The 32-hour workweek, often promoted as a modest quality-of-life reform, carries a price tag of $918 billion. The CEA’s model assumes workers would keep their current weekly pay while receiving time-and-a-half overtime for any work beyond 32 hours. The economic fallout would be severe: GDP would contract by 1.5 percent annually, employment would fall between 8 and 12 percent, and unemployment would climb to somewhere between 6.6 and 8.2 percent, up from the current 4.1 percent. Over a decade, the policy would cost the economy $5.2 trillion in lost GDP, a tradeoff rarely mentioned by the policy’s advocates.

Open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants, another DSA priority, would cost between $440 billion and $613 billion, based on a lifetime net fiscal cost of $166,716 for every illegal immigrant under the policy. Amnesty alone is projected to cost between $36 billion and $47 billion due to increased enrollment in welfare programs. The Green New Deal, a central commitment of Groundwork, one of the largest caucuses on the DSA’s governing National Political Committee, would cost $370 billion in its initial phase and swell to more than $12 trillion over 25 years once the costs of reaching net-zero emissions and the resulting economic losses are included. The report estimates the policy could raise the average household’s electric bill by 16.3 percent. Universal rent control, the cheapest item on the DSA’s agenda, would still cost $16.2 billion over a decade while eliminating roughly 3.3 million rental units and reducing housing quality by 4.5 percent, according to the CEA’s modeling.

The DSA’s preferred funding mechanism, a wealth tax on billionaires, falls dramatically short of covering any of this. A 5 percent tax on billionaire net wealth, modeled on legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, would raise just $3.94 trillion over ten years, a figure the CEA says would shrink to $2.54 trillion as taxable wealth declines in response to the tax itself. Taken together, the DSA’s full agenda carries a net cost of $48.9 trillion to American taxpayers, translating to roughly $355,000 in net fiscal costs per American household over a decade. If funded through borrowing, as DSA proponents generally propose, federal debt would reach 254 percent of GDP, a level with no precedent in American history and one that would fundamentally alter the nation’s financial standing for decades to come.

Scripture offers sober counsel for any nation tempted to promise more than it can deliver. Proverbs 22:7 reminds us that the borrower is slave to the lender, a principle that applies to nations as surely as it applies to individuals. A government that commits future generations to $355,000 per household in debt is not demonstrating compassion; it is mortgaging the inheritance of children not yet born. Luke 14:28 counsels anyone building a tower to first sit down and count the cost, lest he be unable to finish what he started. Policies that sound generous but collapse under their own economic weight do not serve the vulnerable they claim to help; they leave fewer resources, higher unemployment, and a weaker economy in their wake. Faithful stewardship, both personal and national, requires honesty about costs before promises are made, not after the bill comes due.

Let’s pray for lawmakers weighing these proposals, that they would exercise wisdom and genuine concern for the next generation rather than political expediency. Let’s pray for American families already struggling with the cost of living, that they would not be burdened further by policies promising relief but delivering debt. Let’s pray for the church to be a voice of truth and sound stewardship in public debate, modeling what it looks like to count the cost honestly. And let’s pray for our nation’s economic future, that leaders would pursue policies that strengthen rather than endanger the prosperity God has entrusted to this country.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from The National Pulse. Photo Credit: Personisinsterest – Own work (Given to me with full permission), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=176968401).