Make Elizabeth Warren Hate Again

[Omaha Steve]

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MAY 2, 2019

We don’t just need Elizabeth Warren’s ideas. We need her rage.

BY MOE TKACIK

I was riding an UberPool home from a demoralizing dead winter dinner shift in the midst of a pregnancy scare when Elizabeth Warren’s universal child care proposal hit my feeds. I had made $225.46 before taxes that night; my babysitter had taken home $160, and she’d need a substantial raise if I had a third. The Warren plan promised to cap day care costs at 7% of household income. If day care costs were income-based, I could have three wall-vandalizing, juicespilling, lipstick-smearing, toilet paper-unravelling, time-murdering children, and I wouldn’t even have to be a waitress to begin with. I could be an adjunct history professor!

I gave $27.50 to the Warren campaign that night. Given her single-digit polling numbers, I realized I stood a better chance of finagling my way into Norwegian citizenship than she had of becoming president, but I wanted the proposals to keep coming. It felt like I was getting something for my money, like I was funding a think tank, a real think tank, not a tax-exempt front for a confederation of lobbying interests staffed by former Hillary aides, but an incubator of vital ideas and solutions in waiting for a Sanders administration.

The policy statement stream persisted: the proposal to undo Amazon and Facebook’s acquisition binges; the $500 billion plan to build millions of affordable homes; the plan to force agricultural equipment manufacturers to open-source operations so farmers can repair their own machines; the $100 billion plan to radically expand opioid addiction treatment; the proposal to ban fossil fuel extraction on publicly owned lands and make public parks free; the $1.25 trillion plan to cancel student loan debt and make college free. And a raft of targeted new taxes that would finance all these plans: on corporate profits higher than $100 million, inheritances more valuable than $7 million, net worth greater than $50 million.

I would have gladly pitched in more tax dollars to fund most of her agenda, but tellingly, #TeamWarren never asked. So I kept pressing those irritating DONATE buttons. I wasn’t alone. By March the whole lamestream media, from the New York Times to CNBC, was singing the praises of Warren’s proposal mill. A typical Guardian column pronounced her the “intellectual powerhouse of the Democratic party.” Behind that powerhouse, Warren had amassed the 2020 contest’s largest salaried campaign staff, 161 strong by The Hill’s count.

FULL story: http://inthesetimes.com/article/21864/elizabeth-warren-anger-rage-policies-2020-election

[oldsoftie]

1. The revenue proposals will still not raise anywhere NEAR the money needed to fund those programs

Its nice to envision it, but in the end the same result; more debt. As i've said many times before, we always look with envy at the European programs that we'd like to have here (LOVE to have here), but we refuse to use the funding methods that THEY use. They have rich & ultrarich people too; but for some reason we in the US have a need to focus only of the wealthy. Many proposals are more of a feel good solution than a realistic way to raise income; a way to "get" them. Especially an asset tax. SO many ways to avoid that. Give me any proposal and i'll show you how to avoid it.
There's only ONE tax that no one can avoid, and the Europeans use it to their benefit. Yet we refuse to even consider it here on a national level. The consumption tax. But local municipalities use it regularly to fund THEIR programs & the people vote FOR it!! Until we do, we'll keep on meandering thru campaign after campaign with pie-in-the-sky fantasies.

[bloom]

2. The consumption tax taxes those will less income at a much higher percentage than those with higher

incomes - because those with higher incomes can save more.

I think Warren it exactly right - for addressing inequality in this country. Those with the most need to be taxed more than they are now. And if the wealthy cry over a 2% tax on income over 50 million - they are being stupid.

[oldsoftie]

3. And the people with the most money also spend a ton of it. Which would get taxed.

Just look at any resort area. Any high end shopping district. How many high dollar cars are on the roads. Rich people spend a LOT of money. And rich people that avoid taxes also spend a LOT of money.
If we want to truly raise the money we have to tax everyone.

The "wealth tax" wouldnt even hit 100k households. And the evading most of it would be easy.

The fact is, no one running wants to actually, realistically, implement true funding. We constantly look fondly at the European systems but refuse to use their funding methods (and BTW, most of their corp tax rates have been lower than ours. Not sure about now, after the tax bill though).
Europe has poor people, they're paying into the system. I dont see any groups over there marching to get rid of the consumption tax because it hurts the poor. Because the poor are helped MORE by the systems in place. And it works. Because we keep referring to them!!

I'm CERTAINLY all for getting the rich to pay more into the system. Its a piece of the puzzle. But if we just want to get the rich to pay more simply because they should, we'll continue falling further into debt. Its just not ENOUGH and no one can show that it is.