There is a cancer within the Democratic Party that needs to be cut out. Some well-placed people within it are under the impression that the party’s primary mission is keeping its consultant class employed.
This was first noted by Bruce Bartlett, a Reagan administration economist who came to regret the policies he helped implement. Would that the evidence would stop there.
Steve Rattner, a treasury official in Mr. Obama’s administration, called a Warren presidency a “terrifying prospect.” Rattner said that if we wanted a president like Warren, we should move to France.
Maybe not a bad idea since they spend about half the level of GDP on their health care than we do. The food isn’t bad either.
He opined that Warren would “extend the reach of the federal government far further than anything even FDR ever imagined.” That is not only historically false, but it was also Mr. Rattner who completely restructured the auto industry by fiat during the financial crisis, and violated centuries of statute law by stiffing GM bondholders.
Please note Mr. Rattner is still barred from the securities industry due to an investigation regarding kickbacks involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Nancy Pelosi criticized M4A and Sen. Warren’s proposed wealth tax, saying “what works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan.”
Unfortunately, Ms. Pelosi’s appeasement of the ghouls at the PhRMA lobby is the reason why Medicare is forbidden to negotiate drug prices. She had to buy off their opposition to ACA by promising that billions of dollars in profits- a wealth transfer from the afflicted to the CEOs of these firms – with that assurance.
I don’t think that would be tolerated in a Warren Administration. If preventing that sounds too “socialist” for you, perhaps take a moment to reassess your priors.
Her proposition for a “wealth tax” is controversial. While I don’t believe that’s the most effective tool for meeting our obligations to our citizens, Mr. Bill Gates has registered his concern.
Mr. Gates has given away over $10 billion of his own money on various projects, but oddly enough, even though he retired many years ago, he is now worth far more than ever.
One reason for that is that we tax labor at three times the rate of investment, which is a sure-fire recipe for widening inequality. Again, if anyone thinks amending that structure is “too progressive,” maybe take a moment to reconsider.
Larry Summers, another former Obama official, is also upset. Then again, Sen. Warren was instrumental in keeping him off a position at the Fed, so if she wins, no meal ticket. See where this is going?
One odd feature of this election process was asking Ms. Warren how she intended to pay for M4A, because she was baited by members of her own party into doing it.
Getting into minute details in the middle of an election is a fool’s errand since any proposal like this has to go through Congress anyway. But it took courage to take the bait, spell it out, and let the chips fall where they may.
What led me to write this was the calumny against Senator Warren expressed by Jerry Kremer in his Nov. 7 piece. He writes “Biden has seen his share of tragedies, and occasional missteps aside, knows what personal pain is because he has lived it. The only one of the two-tiered candidates that fails the Clinton test is Mrs. Warren. She won’t become the president by waging a war on the rich. You can’t get elected by being the candidate with the most solutions, without making people feel something warm and fuzzy.”
Allow me to quote Professor Connie Schultz, the wife of Sen. Sherrod Brown:
“First, a disclosure: I first knew Elizabeth Warren as my husband’s colleague in the U.S. Senate. I would not presume to describe us as friends. And yet. After my brother’s suicide, Elizabeth Warren texted. Then she called. And then wrote a personal note of support. This was during one of the darkest times of my life, and I had no intention of sharing this publicly.
Until now, in response to recent coverage.
This is not an endorsement of Elizabeth Warren the candidate, but an affirmation of who I know her to be. Anyone falsely casting her as angry & antagonistic is telegraphing the limits of their minds, and the magnitude of their insecurities.”
Make what you will of the timing and the sentiment of Mr. Kremer’s unjustified smear.
Donald Davret
Roslyn
