There seems to be a lot of talk about political “branding” lately. Allow Elizabeth Warren to take a crack at it.
The great progressive hope kind of launched her middle-class agenda this week, the same way a mayor breaks ground on a construction site. Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) announced the beginning of the “Middle Class Prosperity Project,” which aims “to focus greater congressional and public attention on the challenges facing the middle class.” Presumably there will be legislation at some point. For now, the effort comprises a forum with economists that took place Tuesday afternoon and an op-ed in USA Today.
“For too long, government has worked for the rich and powerful. Government needs to work for America’s middle class again,” the duo wrote, echoing a familiar (though resonant) message.
The ideas seem to be much the same. Asked to name a specific proposal she has in mind, Warren told “Morning Joe” Tuesday that Congress should pass a bill refinancing student loan debt.
“What we’re doing right now is we are taxing young people who are trying to get an education — people who are trying to start their lives and had to borrow money to go to school — we are taxing them so that tax loopholes can stay open for millionaires and billionaires,” Warren said. It’s an absurd formulation — Congress didn’t set interest rates on student loans to reap a profit and then use it to pay for tax policy toward the wealthy — but it’s consistent.
In July, Warren told a forum, “There is a choice that America will make. And that choice is, when there’s tens of billions of dollars on the table, will the money be used to protect tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, or will that money be used to help people who are trying to get an education, who are trying to get a start.” She was touting a bill of hers, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, that would’ve reduced the interest rates of certain student loan debtors and paid for the lost government revenue with a tax hike on the wealthy.
The legislation failed to advance out of the Senate. Jon Stewart, who caters to young adults, wouldn’t even bite on it, citing the measure’s political nature.
What’s going to change this time?
“The prospects [of passage] are a whole lot better if you get out there and fight for it,” Warren said to “Morning Joe.”
“I guarantee, if we just sit back and continue to have debates over pipelines for foreign oil companies and shutting down [the Department of] Homeland Security, not one thing will get done for America’s working families.”
That last political jab — in reference to the Keystone pipeline, whose congressional approval President Obama vetoed Tuesday, and expiring Homeland Security funds tied to the president’s immigration order — preceded a volley Warren threw at Republicans during the project’s first forum Tuesday afternoon.
“I’ll believe Republicans care about what’s happening to America’s middle class when . . .” and “Republican trickle-down economics [did ‘x’] . . .” she repeated over and over, citing a list of perceived GOP offenses. It lasted for a while.
“I could go on, but the point is the same: Talk is cheap. It’s time for action — action that will strengthen America’s middle-class families and build a strong a future, action that will produce good jobs now and in the future. It is time to put up or shut up,” she said emphatically. “I have a message for my Republican colleagues. You control Congress. Stop talking about helping the middle class, and start doing it. Close tax loopholes, raise the minimum wage, cut student loan interest rates, raise Social Security payments, fund our schools and our highways and medical research.”
Warren’s message has inspired talk among her most committed backers that she’ll jump into the presidential race. Based on her public engagement in the last 48 hours, she’s digging in to continue a battle she’s waged in Congress from her first day there.
