It may not be Wall Street”s worst nightmare but it’s right up there with Glass-Steagel and breaking up those too-big-to-fail banks: Elizabeth Warren has been appointed to the Senate Banking Committee. And she isn’t likely to go easy on the financial finaglers. That’s not her style.
She is already making waves and she doesn’t get sworn in for a couple of weeks yet.
One rock-the-boat suggestion is changing the Senate’s filibuster rule to make it tougher for a senator to block legislation. Now, a deficit reduction plan she came up with is reverberating among progressives.
Salon.com reports today that the senator elect’s “vision” makes sense not only to liberals but to the general public, too.
Salon describes Warren’s “balanced approach” as “a notch or two to the left of Obama’s.”
Here’s an excerpt from the Salon article:
Beyond tax increases for the wealthy, she has called for the elimination of many agriculture and oil subsidies, cuts to defense and an end to the war in Afghanistan (which costs about $2 billion a week) while leaving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security untouched.
Hey! That’s just the kind of thing I’ve been calling for. And I bet you’ve been thinking along those lines yourself. (I guess great minds do think alike.)
And the plan has “widespread support” beyond the liberal community.
Salon reports:
Case in point, the PCCC (Progressive Change Campaign Committee) polled voters in two swing states (Virginia and New Hampshire), and in Obama’s home state of Illinois, about Warren’s plan….
Asked about “cutting spending on Social Security benefits,” voters in all three states opposed the idea in large numbers: 66 percent in Virginia, 74 percent in Illinois and 75 percent in New Hampshire. On Medicare, it was a similar story: 68 percent of Virginians opposed cuts, along with 73 percent of Illinoisans, and 74 percent of New Hampshirites. The numbers were slightly lower for Medicaid, but none below 59 percent in opposition to cuts.
Even in military-dependent Virginia, 74 percent supported cutting waste in military spending, while the numbers were even slightly higher in other states. On cutting oil subsidies, support ranged from 76 percent in Virginia to 86 percent in Illinois. On cutting subsidies to agriculture corporations, support was about 76 percent in all three states.
I don’t suppose the president will read my blog, or even the Salon.com article. Senator Warren might have to let him know her views herself.
He needs to hear from people like her. And you might want to give him a call, too (or give him a nudge on his web site).
Click here to contact the president.
Click here to read the Salon.com article.
Click here to read about Warren’s appointment.
Click here for Warren on the filibuster rule.
