Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has spent the summer making significant gains in national polling as well as in polling in the early contest states, Iowa and New Hampshire. In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Sanders is actually up by 10 points over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and tied with her in Iowa.

What is driving support for Sanders' campaign? The promise of lots of free [stuff] certainly helps. The Wall Street Journal has analyzed Sanders' campaign proposals and estimated that his plans for new federal programs would cost $18 trillion over the next ten years. The bulk of that—$15 trillion—would be spent on expanding Medicare to include all Americans in an attempt to impose a "single payer" (the government) healthcare system in the United States, something Republican frontrunner Donald Trump says he's supported other countries doing.

The $15 trillion number comes from a similar proposal in Congress for a single payer system, introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), which comes with that price tag. Sanders declined an interview request from the Journal but the paper spoke to his policy director, Warren Gunnells, who called the $15 trillion number for a single-payer system alone a fair estimate.

Read the full article at Reason.com: Bernie Sanders, the 18 Trillion Dollar Man