The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan, nonprofit organization “committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact.”

The organization estimates the cost of the ambitious Medicare for All plan – advocated by Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders – at about $32 trillion for 10 years.

To put that in perspective, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the entire federal budget for fiscal year 2019 was $4.4 trillion. That means adding Medicare for All on top of the current federal budget would spike spending by more than 50%.

However, this is but one of the hefty spending plans advocated by Democrats running for president. The Green New Deal, as introduced by Sanders, would cost $16.3 trillion. Sanders and Warren also want to:

• Cancel about $1.6 trillion worth of student loan debt; and

• Fund free abortions for anyone, at any time, for any reason.

These spending plans are in addition to radical social proposals by other presidential candidates. For example, Beto O’Rourke of Texas has said he would confiscate all AR-15 and AK-47 rifles from law-abiding citizens and remove the existing physical barriers at the U.S. border with Mexico.

As New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary draws closer, we are again ranking our top five Democratic contenders. This list ranks the candidates who we believe are most likely to be the 2020 Democratic nominee.

1. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – Perhaps it was something akin to home-field advantage in being so close to her home state, but Warren certainly got the loudest and most sustained cheers of all the candidates who spoke during the Sept. 7 New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention. Recent polls show Warren moving ahead of most competitors.

2. Joe Biden of Delaware – The former vice president has, until very recently, been the clear front-runner for the nomination since announcing his candidacy earlier in the year. However, recent polls show that Warren is now on roughly equal footing with Biden. Moreover, Warren is clearly viewed as the more liberal choice among the two, while she also has a quality Biden will never have in that she is a woman in a party increasingly run by women.

3. Kamala Harris of California – Harris has watched her poll numbers collapse, both nationally and in New Hampshire, since their height in early July. She still has time to turn it around, but needs a “game-changer.”

4. Pete Buttigieg of Indiana – The openly gay, 37-year-old mayor of South Bend also saw his momentum cool over the summer. Still, he is now fourth in most national and New Hampshire polls.

5. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – Though Sanders remains third in most polls, we simply cannot see the Democratic Party allowing a socialist/independent to be its presidential nominee.