For whoever needs to hear this: Warren has focused on working family financial issues

[blm]

for her entire adult life, outside of politics and on the inside, long before Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, and long before lazyminded political pundits labeled her as a socialist linking her with Sanders to diminish her personal achievements and resume in order to diminish her candidacy.

https://apnews.com/8bbb0cbe763a407db4a9b5d563dc56ca

Elizabeth Warren’s rise started by looking at the bottom

CHICAGO (AP) — As a young scholar, Elizabeth Warren traveled to federal courthouses, studying families overwhelmed by debt. She brought along a photocopier, gathering reams of statistics as she tried to answer one question: Why were these folks going bankrupt?

Warren, then a law professor, wasn’t satisfied with textbook explanations; she wanted to hear directly from people drowning in debt. So she sat in courtrooms, listening to one hard-luck story after another. She interviewed lawyers and judges, duplicated bankruptcy filings on a sturdy copier — nicknamed R2-D2 — that she hauled around to save printing costs. And she was joined in her research by two professor-colleagues who teamed with her to study those documents and build a database.

Warren had suspected bankruptcy court might be a last stop for deadbeats, or maybe the very poor. Instead, she discovered mostly middle-class people, many of them homeowners with college degrees who’d suffered one bad break — an illness, a divorce, a job loss. It was the kind of cruel twist that seemed all too familiar: When Warren was 12 years old, her father, a carpet salesman, had a heart attack. The family’s station wagon was repossessed, and her mother went to work in a minimum-wage job at Sears to pay the bills.

Warren’s foray into bankruptcy was the first step in a four-decade journey that has come to define her public profile and shape her worldview. As a law professor, bankruptcy expert, consumer watchdog, Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate, Warren has consistently championed economic reforms — with mixed results — to boost the middle class.

“The American middle class was in a lot more trouble than anyone had previously thought,” she told The Associated Press, describing her research, “and year by year, the stories have gotten worse. ... The game has become a little more tilted and a little more tilted against hardworking families.”
......

[crazytown]

1. We've got a fine 'deadbeat bankrupt' in the White House right night.

Bankruptcy wasn't the last stop on his string of fiascos - it was the first. Then of course, Biden tightened the bankruptcy laws on the middle class, helping them out the door of their homes during the Great Recession.

[The Valley Below]

2. I posted earlier today that my great hope is that she will drill down on these issues.

These are her strong suit and an area of great need where she has expertise.

Her best move would be to ease off the populist rhetoric, while strongly championing these financial issues. She could help move the ball.

I hope she makes this the focus of her campaign.

[Ohiogal]

3. There is no other Democratic candidate

Who has put in anywhere close to the amount of time Warren has, studying the numbers and talking to the people. She knows both the problem and the solution inside and out. I wish we had more people who were open to electing a smart woman president in this country.

[blm]

5. Exactly. And the attacks against her integrity, credibility, sincerity, and

commitment by political ‘strategists’ and their gullible troops is just wrongheaded.....and, in some cases, downright evil.

[emmaverybo]

10. I think many are. But these issues, important as they are, do not comprise all a president must

concern herself with. She will be the leader of the free world, a super power among super powers, a commander in chief. And all that is just some of it.

She needs to polish credentials in an array of issues and show qualifications competitive with, for one, a powerful, former VP with world-stage stature, a raft of legislative accomplishments, and
heavy weight foreign policy experience.

She is branching out with more transcendent themes in her campaign.She is trying to gain traction with AA voters. Good. She may well come back up.

Expertise in domestic policy issues alone and her fight against corruption have got her to a very high place. So has the potential historicity of her as th3 first female American President.

That she’s slipping is not because Dems are not open to a smart woman, but that being a smart woman, with a specialty, might not be enough. And unfortunately she was unwise in following Bernie on M4All. I do believe if Biden slipped, she might surpass Bernie.

[aikoaiko]

14. I agree and wish she would take her credentials to Biden in debates

But she won't for some reason.

[blm]

18. She took 3mo of hits from a few camps.

Last edited Sun Jan 5, 2020, 01:57 AM - Edit history (1)

I’m glad she’s not accomplished at attacking other Dems. This is her first primary campaign. I really don’t like Dems who ARE skilled at attacking other Dems.

[aikoaiko]

22. Sure, but her reluctance to not draw hard lines with Biden showed me...

... she is not really serious about being the nominee.

I get it that she wants to do iit her way, but I don't see her beating Joe by being nice.

[blm]

35. Many don't realize this is actually her first primary. Hitting other Dems

is not part of her skill set. She’s great against Republicans.

[ritapria]

4. During the early debates

Elizabeth was linking herself to Bernie Sanders ... They were a tag-team defending MFA ...She passed Bernie in most polls, was briefly tied with Biden in national polls ………….She was a woman , a more warm and cuddly version of Bernie ...Then she backed off MFA .. In 2 steps … Consequentially , she dropped from 25% to her present standing of 15% in national polls ….Now she rarely mentions her healthcare proposal on the stump … She listened to the consultants who advised her to 'move to the center" … That was a big mistake …. When you are feeling the heat from the corporate media shills , you never back down.... You double down when you are in the right ...She could still recover …. Elizabeth must win Iowa and use that momentum to win NH …. She would make a great VP nominee for Bernie Sanders , if she falls short in her own presidential bid

[blm]

6. She didn't back down. She presented a timeline which political opportunists

from several camps used to attack her. As if her timeline was impossible while declaring THEIR timeline of public option first and then try for Med4All much later on was the only one that would work. She was only guilty of presenting the most detailed plan. Biden, Buttigieg, and others attacked her from the right while some of Sanders hardcore supporters attacked her as a coward.

[Bettie]

9. She was also expected to account for

every single penny of cost and precisely where it would come from, while others aren't questioned about their rather vague plans.

[summer_in_TX]

11. The $21 trillion dollar price tag was daunting

And that's when she started slipping in the polls.

It gave me pause. I waited to hear how that money wasn't new dollars, but that most were already being spent in another way. I think understanding that would help others, not just me.

I haven't heard it yet. But I really want to, because she is the candidate that intrigues and inspires me the most.

[blm]

13. Healthcare CEO explains why Warren's MFA plan will work

Healthcare CEO explains why Warren's Med4All plan will work.

........
But for UMass Memorial Health Care CEO Dr. Eric W. Dickson, Medicare for All — specifically, Sen. Elizabeth’s Warren’s plan for Medicare for All — is not only worth considering, it’s worth praising.

“It’s a bold and courageous plan, and the best plan that any candidate has come out with to date,” Dickson said Tuesday. “It’s an option to consider ... very few health care CEOs would say that at this point.”

Early last month, Warren released a plan to enact Medicare for All that she said would not raise taxes on the middle class. The plan, constructed with help from economists and health policy experts, estimates a $20.5 trillion cost over a decade and moves the country to universal health care over three years by first building on existing laws, including the Affordable Care Act. The plan is largely paid for by requiring employers to pay what they would normally pay in health insurance premiums to the government in the form of an Employer Medicare Contribution.

https://www.telegram.com/news/20191207/umass-ceo-eric-dickson-backs-medicare-for-all-calls-plan-bold-courageous?

........
Dickson wrote to the Massachusetts Democrat to offer his support, earning a Nov. 2 Twitter shoutout from Warren, and Dickson tweeted in support of a “redesigned Medicare for All plan,” the following week.

In an interview Tuesday, Dickson broke down two major challenges in health care that he said Warren’s plan would address: people without insurance, and care that costs too much and is getting more expensive.

The first challenge would be solved by definition by Medicare for All, Dickson said.

The high cost of health care is a more difficult nut to crack.

But Dickson said Warren’s plan has crucial elements that make it work.


A “linchpin” to the proposal for Dickson is administrative simplification — particularly simplifying the preauthorization and denial processes through streamlined forms rather than a form unique to each state and/or each medical insurer.

Not only would this go a long way to reducing costs by freeing up physicians’ and workers’ time, it would also lessen physicians’ frustrations with — and burnout from — constant paperwork, Dickson said.

The Warren plan also “levels the playing field” for health care providers by paying them all at 110% of Medicare rates, Dickson said.

[summer_in_TX]

27. Thank you!

I've been most impressed with Warren every time I've seen her interviewed in a long format situation, where she could explain her points. And she is high on the likability scale, in my opinion. Very genuine.

That information from the UMass CEO is very helpful. Massachusetts has had the first-in-the-nation version of universal health care, if I recall correctly.

If I were voting now, I'd vote for her.

[blm]

34. Media didn't exactly spread that significant report, but, it was incredibly

important to the overall debate.

I don’t wonder why....I know why....the moneymen don’t want voters to know how M4A would actually work and they don’t want Warren.

[BeyondGeography]

7. What consultants?

You’ve pushed that bullshit before. Got any names or links?

[blm]

8. And, linking HERSELF to Sanders?? Her entire adult life focused on

the very issues which are the foundation of her campaign.

If you see that as merely an attempt to link herself with Sanders then your comprehension skills aren’t as sharp as you’d like to believe.

[Nitram]

12. Warren is the best candidate by far. She is the strongest supporter of the middle class, has put

forth clear and realistic plans, and she has survived numerous attacks on her by Trump and the right wingers.

[KPN]

15. I love Elizabeth Warten, but if I had to choose between the two,

I’d go with Sanders today. He reaches so many people — especially Is. We need every vote we can get. I’m currently thinking he’s our best chance. I have no faith that Kpe can bring it home /- zero,

[Recursion]

16. The middle class and the working class are two different things

And neither of them is "the bottom", economically. The things that are of immediate interest to the poorest Americans are different from the things that are of immediate interest to the middle class. The poorest Americans don't need Medicare For All -- they have Medicaid and polls say they like it. How the middle class pays for health care may be of philosophical interest to them, but doesn't address their needs today. Ditto free college tuition: people who get need-based grants that cover tuition and face a much bigger hurdle of foregoing income don't have an immediate concern about how much middle class people pay for college. Lack of bus service is a bigger hurdle to attending college, for that matter -- is there a candidate talking about funding expanded bus service? I haven't heard it.

Our political system has a bad habit of confusing the aspirations of the middle class with the needs of the poor, and this article seems to further that confusion.

[blm]

17. Working family spectrum.

When the healthcare bills start piling up one can hit bottom very quickly. I don’t find this article confusing.

YMMV

[Recursion]

19. No, a middle class family that goes through bankruptcy is still not "at the bottom"

That's exactly the kind of confusion I'm talking about. Not only is bankruptcy not what poor people are scared of, again they have Medicaid and medical bills aren't what worries them compared to, say, road construction re-routing their bus service.

[blm]

20. They are at THEIR bottom. Sheesh. Why pretend you don't

understand that? No one in the article claimed they, or we, all have the exact same issues. You’re scolding the article for not being a comprehensive report on all the research data into the plethora of troubles faced neighborhood by neighborhood?

The article was about Warren and what she learned about a financial system rigged against working families. It inspires her to go to work every day to unrig it while you choose to complain the article didn’t focus on your viewpoint.

[Recursion]

21. I'm scolding the article for using "middle class", "working class", and "the bottom" interchangeably

Because that's the exact same mistake our politicians keep making. And the result is that all of our party's signature big ideas are much more helpful to the middle class than to the poor, and I think we can do better.

[emmaverybo]

26. Our party has not mentioned "the poor," targeted policies to them, for decades. John Edwards

was the last candidate to focus on their issues. Many Americans believe that their fellows make themselves poor, not that the system contributes to their plight or even that personal misfortune does, and frankly, resent spending any time or money on them.

Hence, politically, it is much safer to act as though there are two classes in America, both of which conjure up a colorless image of respectability, industriousness, and deserved rewards. Progressives aim their policies at the “deserving,” not the needy. In fact, it is not unlikely that were their utopian visions for the working and middle class to come true, the truly needy would suffer for it. Cuts will have to be made somewhere. Programs that serve the low-income and the seriously poor are already at risk, underfunded, broken.

If progressives were to get the trillions in investments they ask for on behalf of a two-classes America, many at-risk social programs and services will have less a cut of the pie.

[Recursion]

28. A friend of mine is a professor at a small HBCU

She has mentioned that her students aren't particularly worried about tuition (they get grants, after all) but rather about the lack of bus service to and from campus. Reducing bus wait times doesn't exactly fire up activists, but it's one of the biggest ways we could actually help poor people.

[emmaverybo]

29. Something most of us would not think of. Protecting Medicaid is another. States are making serious

cuts. Food stamps another endangered program. Federal school lunch program. I wish the Dem party platform would endorse strengthening services for the poor, improving their quality of life, and their chances to move out of low income status,

Childcare, yes. But the priority group served should be poor families. Single parents, usually mothers, trying to move from welfare to work can’t do so without quality and reliable childcare. Although some states offer stipends, not enough programs are available. Raising every one’s taxes, which is what will happen, to give a lawyer and a doctor free child care is a ridiculously wasteful idea.

[Recursion]

30. I still think "Medicaid for Most" is how we're actually going to solve healthcare

That's just not a very good bumper sticker

[loyalsister]

32. Improving public transit would increase opportunities for poor people immensely!

If people could give up their cars it would be a huge economic benefit that would also contribute to cleaning up our air.

[blm]

33. ✔️

Transportation and job opportunities go hand in hand.

[BlueWI]

23. Her record on these issues is stellar.

I hope that all Democrats take a lesson from Warren and amplify campaign themes in 2020 around the need to help working families. The lack of a compelling core narrative is a routine problem in Democratic campaigns. Warren has handed us a theme that makes good sense to a wide swath of voters.

[blm]

24. Pulitzer winning rural journal endorsed Warren for her ability to

speak to rural voters and their issues.

Sad that some in opposing camps are trying to spread the lie that she is an out of touch elitist.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/12/11/elizabeth-warren-endorsement-art-cullen-storm-lake-times-iowa-caucuses/4397084002/

[BlueWI]

25. Thanks for the link.

It's good to spread the word.

[blm]

31. Too many positive Warren posts drop while the attack posts seem

to go on for far too long.