The Liberal equivalent of the Ryan plan

Over at Balloon Juice they came up with what would be the Bernie Sanders budget plan "Bernie Sanders budget plan"in the response to the 'Ryan plan is so genius it will immediately spawn a housing boom in 2012 that will generate $89 billion of new housing construction", forgetting that 1 in 9, or 14 million houses stand empty today. 

What if Bernie Sanders sat down, wrote a “Plan for Prosperity,” and in it raised the top marginal rate on everyone over 250k a year to 70%, hiked capital gains, got rid of every deduction, got rid of all the loopholes, ended farm subsidies, put in place a VAT tax and a carbon tax, called for nationalizing the health care industry, making union membership mandatory, abolished the Defense Department and consolidated all the branches into a coastal and air defense force with 100,000 men, got rid of our nukes, allowed gay marriage nationwide, put in place a rigorous regulatory regime for food, water, environmental, and financial security, shortened the work week to 30 hours and raised the minimum wage to 22 dollars an hour, and gave DC and Puerto Rico statehood?

We could also call that brave, serious and courageous, except just like the Ryan plan, it will never pass and it will be incredibly destructive because it ignores reality. 

While you're there read the article by Bruce Bartlett, the former Reagan and Bush Snr. official who is a sane Republican which means he has no place in the current version of the party.