Using his age as a barometer, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders likely graduated from high school some four decades ago.
That didn’t prevent a number of people from taking the socialist senator to school on Twitter yesterday after he delivered himself of what conservative pundit Bill Kristol called the “most economically illiterate tweet ever.”
Here is Sanders’s tweet:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
You have families out there paying 6, 8, 10 percent on student debt but you can refinance your homes at 3 percent. What sense is that?
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 26, 2015
Where to begin? as they say. Perhaps with this biting reaction:
Hello, my name is #Bernie and although I have no clue how collateral works, I am running for president. Weeeee! https://t.co/UwvISPidpk
— Casey (@space_case12) December 26, 2015
Some of the commenters tried to help Sanders understand the folly of his question:
@SenSanders if you fail to pay off your mortgage the bank gets your property,a student loan?the gov gets nothing.
— anton newcombe (@antonnewcombe) December 26, 2015
Um, I'm no economics guru, but one is a secured debt; the other is not. Therein lies the "sense." https://t.co/j552apfOEI
— Voldematt (@Voldematt) December 26, 2015
How about rates based on risk of payment?
Gender studies majors 19%
Business majors 3% @SenSanders— Liars Never Win (@liars_never_win) December 26, 2015
Even Sanders supporters were taken aback at his stumbling over such a basic principle of economics as collateralized debt obligation:
@SenSanders I like you but you have to understand collateralized debt
— Greg Wissinger (@gwiss) December 26, 2015
There are many more responses at Twitchy and on Twitter itself, where the original comment was retweeted closed to 2,000 times as of this writing.