Barely 100 days into Donald Trump’s presidency, and the Democrats are already plotting a course for the 2020 election.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has been tapped by many as the heir apparent to the Democratic seat.
However, nominating Warren would be a disastrous mistake for the Democrats.
Warren made a name for herself as a consumer advocate (featured in the documentary Maxed Out, a film about credit card debt and predatory lending), and flouting senate rules while “persisting” during Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing.
Despite denying interest in pursuing the highest office in the land, Warren continues to dial-up the specious populist rhetoric.
From a Salon article:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized former President Barack Obama and her own political party for selling out to corporate donors and failing to stay in touch with the working class in an interview with The Guardian on Monday.
“I think President Obama, like many others in both parties, talks about a set of big national statistics that look shiny and great but increasingly have giant blind spots,” Warren told the magazine, “that GDP, unemployment, no longer reflect the lived experiences of most Americans … And the lived experiences of most Americans is that they are being left behind in this economy…”
Warren’s comments came on the same day newly released data showed that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost the election last November in large part because an overwhelming amount of Americans flipped their votes for Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump just four years later.
Warren’s criticism of Obama could deter his loyal coalition from supporting her, a coalition that didn’t fully embrace Hillary Clinton (who hit Obama hard in a gritty 2008 primary).
Warren’s next problem is that her hollow narrative hurts her credibility in key areas. One such issue is the gender wage gap. Warren and other progressives continue to perpetuate this myth which has been debunked numerous times.
Warren was accused of paying women in her office less, which was factually true. However, as is the case with all of these discrepancies, it was explained by reasonable external factors (such as female staffers leaving for promotions and being replaced by men).
Warren’s policies will also exacerbate the growing student-loan bubble.
From Townhall.com:
The Massachusetts senator, who was once paid more than $400,000 to teach a single class at Harvard, has made a name for herself as a shrill defender of income redistribution…
She wants to raise corporate-tax rates, which scares companies out of the country. She protests crony capitalism in the financial markets, yet supports the Import-Export bank. She wants to lower student interest rates which only encourages more irresponsible borrowing. She supports taxpayer-funded, late-term abortion. She wants to raise the minimum wage to $22 per hour and have the IRS prepare your taxes. The list of her bad big-government ideas is endless.
Lowering interest rates on student loans only leads to more borrowing of government-backed loans, which motivates universities to hike their tuition costs. This is a form of predatory lending Warren purports to oppose.
As for her IRS policy, this doesn’t help the intended working class. First, free tax preparation services already exist. Second, the IRS has no incentive to fight for the individual to get the best tax return possible. Third, it will simply grow the administrative bloat of the IRS.
Warren and her big-government solutions are the “new Coke” of the Democratic Party; she’s a less-appealing version of an old formula.
Plus, her claim of being fractionally Cherokee––a claim that landed her a professorship at Harvard, and a $400,000 payday––may not withstand the scrutiny of a national campaign.
If the Democrats are serious about challenging for the White House in 2020, they won’t run Elizabeth Warren.
Same old story. How about an article about H.R.1180/S.801?
Any Democrat would be a very bad choice, and some worse than others.