Bernie Sanders is an activist, not a mathematician. But the Vermont senator can do the math, and he’d like to propose a little addition by subtraction. That is, add money to education while subtracting money from the US military budget. Sanders is pushing to make public colleges and universities free for families who make less than $125K a year, while pointing out that the Pentagon may not need more money to keep us safe. We already spend, according to Sanders, more than the next 12 nations combined on the US military.

Our military budget is larger than the next 12 nations combined. We do not need to spend more. We need to take care of our people. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 11, 2017

[LEFT: Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution, a bestseller at Amazon]

Sanders recognizes that military spending is attractive. History tells us that often “might is right” and the US wants to be right. But the larger military budget might actually work against us rather than for us, as Sanders hints in this Zen koan-like formulation:

It is easy to go to war with other countries. It is not so easy to comprehend the unintended consequences of that war. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 10, 2017

Sanders believes that making a college education free is “not that complicated.” And it’s a bipartisan desire, too. He talks about the “College For All Act” in the video below. Sanders is encouraged in seeing the repeal of Obamacare fail, and now he thinks the people can push through free education. A couple of battleships would pay for a lot of college classes.