Elizabeth Warren has some big plans.
The senior Massachusetts senator wants to make college free, ban fracking nationwide and instate Medicare for all. She wants to tilt the balance of power toward working individuals and families and away from the rich to battle the economic inequality of our country.
She’s bold with her plan for the future of America and it’s working to help her stand out in a crowded field of candidates for the Democratic ticket.
Warren was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1949 and on the campaign trail has described her upbringing as “the ragged edge of the middle class.”
She won a debate scholarship to George Washington University at 16 years old but would leave after two years to marry her first husband. She earned a degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Houston and later a J.D. from Rutgers Law School.
Starting in the 1970s and continuing into the 80s and 90s, Warren would research bankruptcy and middle class personal finance.
Following the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and the Great Recession, Warren advocated for the creation of the agency that would become the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “to protect consumers from financial tricks and traps often hidden in mortgages, credit cards and other financial products,” as her campaign website states.
She would serve as an assistant to former President Barack Obama and a special adviser to the Treasury in helping establish the agency but would not become the agency’s first director despite being its fiercest advocate due to Wall Street and Republican opposition.
It is clear from Warren’s biography that those in power on Wall Street and on the opposite side of the aisle see her as a powerhouse and a threat. One of Warren’s policy ideas, a wealth tax, takes direct aim at the richest of the rich like Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, the Walton family and other names that make billions.
The proposal, according to the New York Times, was developed by UC Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. A family’s wealth over $50 million would be taxed at 2% a year with an additional charge of 1% on wealth over $1 billion. At the New York Times DealBook Conference, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spoke openly about his worry over the plan.
Gates isn’t the only tech figure who is against Warren’s plans. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg isn’t a fan of her plan to break up tech companies like Facebook and Amazon. In leaked audio published by the Verge, Zuckerburg expressed to Facebook employees, “You have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies…if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge.”
Can she win and instate her grand plans for “big, structural change?” Possibly.
She has a passion for making radical change in the White House and the power balances of our country.
She clearly represents the side of Democratic party that is more progressive and radical in nature than those who are more moderately aligned. Time will tell which side speaks to voters.
If it’s Warren as the party nominee in 2020, she can win it.
