Democratic Socialists of America national co-chair Megan Romer could not provide a cost estimate for her own policy agenda when pressed by Fox News host Martha MacCallum, instead dismissing a federal estimate of nearly $49 trillion as “made up.”
The interview, conducted on Fox News’ “The Story” following midterm gains by DSA-backed candidates, centered on the financial cost of the group’s platform, which includes canceling student debt, expanding immigration pathways, and enacting Medicare for All.
MacCallum cited a White House Council of Economic Advisers analysis from October putting the net fiscal burden of the DSA agenda at $48.90 trillion between 2027 and 2036 — roughly $355,000 per American household. Medicare for All alone accounts for $47.41 trillion of that total, according to the analysis. A proposed wealth tax on billionaires, which Romer has previously highlighted, would raise an estimated $3.94 trillion, covering less than 10 percent of the total cost.
“How are you going to pay for that?” MacCallum asked.
Romer disputed the figures without offering an alternative calculation. “Yeah, I mean, we understand that the White House, who does not like us very much, managed to come up with some math that made us look bad,” she said. “Yeah, it’s a made-up number.”
MacCallum pushed back, noting the estimate came from economists, and repeatedly asked Romer for her own figure. “What’s your number when you add up everything on that list? What number did you come up with?” she asked.
“There’s no like, one solid number because it depends on what pieces we can build in the meantime,” Romer said.
When MacCallum asked again for “a basic number,” Romer continued to characterize the White House figures as “outrageous” and “ridiculous” without supplying a competing estimate. “I’m not going to give you a solid number. That’s not what I’m here to do,” she said.
Romer said her role instead was to discuss how people could “collectively” and “democratically” decide how to spend “our money.”
Not the first time
This was not the first occasion on which Romer struggled to answer a direct question about costs. In an August interview, Romer said DSA believes in “taxing the hell out of millionaires” but could not explain what the phrase meant in policy terms when pressed by an interviewer, according to a separate report.
In another interview, this one with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, Romer was asked whether Democratic Party operatives had urged her to temper calls she has made for abolishing the Senate, the Supreme Court, the nation’s borders, and the presidency. “Not a single phone call from a Democratic operative has come to my phone,” Romer said.
Neither the White House nor DSA has released additional figures disputing the Council of Economic Advisers’ estimate at this time.
