One of my favorite people in the whole world, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, dropped by the Netroots Nation conference yesterday in Detroit to talk about banking reform, the threat of oligarchy, the fight to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and those things that she feels that we, as Progressives, are ready to fight for. My video is below, but here’s a bit of the transcript.
…We can’t win what we won’t fight for, and it will be a hard fight. Today, many powerful companies look for any way they can to boost their profits and their CEO bonuses. They try to run more efficient companies. They try to grow faster. They try to beat out the competition. But many of them have another plan. They use their money and their connections to try to capture Washington, and rig the rules in their favor. From tax policy to retirement security, those with power fight to make sure that every rule tilts in their favor. Everyone else just gets left behind. That’s what we’re up against. That’s what democracy is up against.
Just look at the big banks. They cheated American families, crashed the economy, got bailed out, and now the biggest banks are even bigger that they were when they were too big to fail in 2008. They still swagger through Washington, blocking reforms and pushing around agencies… A kid get caught with a few ounces of pot and goes to jail, but a big bank launders drug money and no one gets arrested… The game is rigged! It is rigged!
But it isn’t just the big banks. Look at the choices that the federal government makes right now. Our college kids are getting crushed by student loan debt. We need to rebuild our roads and bridges, up rage our power grid. We need to more investment in medical research and scientific research. But, instead of building a future, this country is bleeding billions of dollars from tax loopholes and subsidies that go to rich and powerful corporations.Billion dollar companies take advantage of every benefit they can squeeze out of the American government, and then they put together sleazy deals with foreign countries so that the can renounce their American citizenship and pay no taxes… Billionaires pay taxes at lower rates than their secretaries.
How does this happen? It happens because they all have lobbyists… lobbyists and Republican friends in Congress… lobbyists and Republicans to protect every loophole and every privilege. The game is rigged, and it isn’t right. It is not right.
Take a look at what happens with trade deals. For big corporations, trade negotiations are like Christmas morning. They can get special gifts through trade negotiations that they could never get through (through other means). How does that happen? Because trade negotiations are held in secret so that big corporations can do their work behind closed doors. Giant corporations get insider access to promote their interests while worker rights and environmental regulations are just gutted. From what I hear, Wall Street companies, pharmaceuticals, telecoms, big polluters, and outsourcers are all smacking their lips at the possibility of rigging the upcoming trade negotiations.
Now stop and ask yourselves, “Why are trade deals secret?” I’ve actually heard supporter say, “They have to be secret, because, if people knew what was going on, they would be opposed.” It’s true. Well, my view is, if people would be opposed, then we shouldn’t have those trade deals.
The tilt in the playing field is everywhere. When the conservatives talk about opportunity, they mean the opportunity for the rich to get richer and the powerful to get more powerful. They don’t mean opportunities for a young person with $100,000 in student loan debt to try to build a future. They don’t mean opportunities for someone out of work to get back on their feet. They don’t mean opportunities for someone who worked hard all of her life to retire with dignity… The game is rigged…
So, the way I see it is this. We could whine about it. We could whimper about it. Or we can fight back… I’m fighting back.
This is a fight over economics. A fight over privilege. But, deep down, it is a fight over values. Conservatives and their powerful friends will continue to be guided by their internal motto, “I got mine, the rest of you are you’re on your own.” Well, we’re guided by principle. And it’s a pretty simple idea. We do better when we work together, and invest in building a future.
We know that this economy grown when hard-working families have the opportunity to improve their lives. We know that this country gets stronger when we invest in helping people succeed. We know that our lives improve when we care for our neighbors and we help build a future not just for some of our kids, but for all of our kids. That’s what we believe! These are Progressive ideas. These are Progressive values. These are America’s values. And these are the values that we are willing to fight for…
(As progressives) we believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we’re willing to fight for it! We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect the earth, and we will fight for it! We believe that the internet shouldn’t be rigged to benefit big corporations, and we should have real net neutrality, and we will fight for it! We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage, and we are willing to fight for it! We believe that students are entitled to get an education without begin crushed by debt, and we are willing to fight for it! We believe that after a lifetime of work, people are entitled to retire with dignity, and that means protecting social security, medicare and pensions, and we will fight for it! And… I can’t believe I have to say this in 2014… We believe in equal pay for equal work, and we are willing to fight for it! We believe that equal means equal, and that’s true in marriage, it’s true in the workplace, it’s true in all of America, and we will fight for it! We believe that immigration has made this country strong and vibrant, and we will fight for it! And we believe that corporation are not people (unintelligible), and we will fight for it!
I know that she’s said that she wouldn’t run, but I think that sounds like a pretty good Presidential platform right there… What do you think?
15 Comments
Thanks for posting Mark. We can only hope she’ll decide to run. She seems like the only person who speaks the truth and is willing to act on it. I offer up my best secular prayers the she will be our first female president.
Maybe someone should have asked Warren why she didnt answer these two questions? When she was asked she ended the interview and walked away. She could not answer these questions because it would be the death of the Progressive party. Here are the questions
Ok Warren, explain how you are going to protect social security when it is not a right. You read correctly, in a 9-0 decision by a democrat/progressive US Supreme Court, we were give the Helvering v Davis decision. In which the Supreme Court stated that the Social Security tax is nothing more then a tax like the income tax and is to be paid into the US treasury and to be used for whatever Congress decides. Now since the House has been in Democrat control for all but maybe 10 years since 1900, care to guess who has been stealing the same money they claim now they want to protect? The ONLY way to overturn this decision is by a 2/3rds majority of the US Congress. But you cant do that because IF you did you would find that the deficit under the Liberal/Democrat/Progressive Presidents is well over 25 to 40 Trillion dollars and that would stop ANY Left wing/liberal/Progressive/Democrat from EVER being elected again to any state or federal office.
Oh and one more thing Warren, if this ever gets out in the public, your party is dead both technically and politically. What is it? Oh nothing more then another liberal US Supreme Court decision that gave us the case of Arthur Sherwood Flemming, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare v. Ephram Nestor 363 U.S. 603 (more) 80 S. Ct. 1367; 4 L. Ed. 2d 1435; 1960 U.S. LEXIS 917 which says, and I quote:
“There has been a temptation throughout the program’s history for some people to suppose that their FICA payroll taxes entitle them to a benefit in a legal, contractual sense. That is to say, if a person makes FICA contributions over a number of years, Congress cannot, according to this reasoning, change the rules in such a way that deprives a contributor of a promised future benefit. Under this reasoning, benefits under Social Security could probably only be increased, never decreased, if the Act could be amended at all. Congress clearly had no such limitation in mind when crafting the law. Section 1104 of the 1935 Act, entitled “RESERVATION OF POWER,” specifically said: “The right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision of this Act is hereby reserved to the Congress.” Even so, some have thought that this reservation was in some way unconstitutional. This is the issue finally settled by Flemming v. Nestor.
In this 1960 Supreme Court decision Nestor’s denial of benefits was upheld even though he had contributed to the program for 19 years and was already receiving benefits. Under a 1954 law, Social Security benefits were denied to persons deported for, among other things, having been a member of the Communist party. Accordingly, Mr. Nestor’s benefits were terminated. He appealed the termination arguing, among other claims, that promised Social Security benefits were a contract and that Congress could not renege on that contract. In its ruling, the Court rejected this argument and established the principle that entitlement to Social Security benefits is not contractual right.”
Did you get that Warren? The Supreme Court that was packed with you progressives, clearly stated that you have NO contractual, and no right to ANY social security and that Congress can stop it any time they want to. Cut you off without a dime or reduce it to whatever they want it to be.
So tell us Warren, exactly HOW are you going to protect what you CANT protect?
Word is that Bernie Sanders is running because she said she wouldn’t. He knows he won’t win but feels as though someone needs to express the non-corporatist view during the debates. I can’t see Warren giving in to pressure but my hunch is that she’d be running if Hillary wasn’t.
Warren probably just values her life and doesn’t want to go up against Hillary. We was what LBJ was willing to do to get behind the big desk, and you know Hillery is seven times as ruthless.
Too bad Warren has decided (or been convinced) not to run. Right now, she and Bernie are just about the only two Washington politicians who have substantial power — and are also saying many things that desperately need to be said about our economy, society, democracy.
If nothing else, I’d like to see Warren run in order to challenge Hillary Clinton from the left and to prevent her from breezing into the 2o16 Democratic presidential nomination based mostly on name recognition, and support from the party establishment and big donors.
Hillary has got to be driven crazy by the fact that almost no one is enthusiastic about her run. People will vote for her, but not enthusiastically, and she knows it. Warren is the woman we all want to be our president.
I don’t read the papers very often but I can’t recall a single instance of her weighing in on a foreign affairs issue.
She has come out in support of Israel’s attack on gaza.
Pretty disappointing that she isn’t offering anything other than the same old bullshit re: Gaza
http://m.elizabethwarren.com/issues/foreign-policy#israel
Warren is the woman I want to remain in the senate. No one can do much without that.
EW’s latest tweet is about her support for level playing fields. Not in Gaza of course.
“Elizabeth Warren could end the presidential speculation today. She has chosen not to.”
From the Washington Post:
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/23/elizabeth-warren-could-end-the-presidential-speculation-today-she-has-chosen-not-to/
From Real Clear Politics:
Read more:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/07/21/not_ready_for_hillary_the_rationale_for_elizabeth_warren_123375.html#ixzz38Jy2E6mT
In case you didn’t see it, a drunk Sarah Palin posted a response to this speech by Warren.
http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch-a-visibly-drunk-sarah-palins-incoherent-response-to-elizabeth-warren/
There’s is a great piece about Warren in the Washington Post today.
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/14/elizabeth-warren-is-changing-washington-without-giving-up-her-outside-status/