FINALLY,,,THE TRUTH: September 22, 2011 9:55 AM
Elizabeth Warren: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. nobody.”
By Lucy Madison http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20110042-503544.html
An August video of Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail is heating up on the internet, and some commentators are pointing to the clip - in which Warren makes a case for progressive economic policies - as evidence that the newly minted Democratic candidate could give incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown a run for his money.
In the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs&feature=player_embedded), which was filmed at an event in Andover, Mass., Warren rebuts the GOP-touted notion that raising taxes on the wealthy amounts to “class warfare,” contending that “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”
Warren rejects the concept that it is possible for Americans to become wealthy in isolation.
“You built a factory out there? Good for you,” she says. “But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.”
She continues: “Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
Warren’s entrance into the Massachusetts Senate race marks her first-ever political bid - and while the longtime consumer advocate is beloved by a number of liberals, some wondered if her lack of political experience would prove crippling in the contest.
The Washington Monthly’s Steven Benen, however, points to the video as an explanation as to “why Warren has a strong base of supporters who adore her.”
“If there are lingering concerns about whether Warren could be an effective speaker on the stump, I think those questions are being answered,” Benen writes. “If more Democrats were able to make the case for the underlying social contract as effectively, our discourse would be vastly less mind-numbing.”
TEN THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT RONALD REAGAN: just some of the many reasons we would never want to see our children taught that this was a great president.
1. Many of us believe that Ronald Reagan's actions as President deregulating Wall Street and dismantling FDR's safety net were the direct cause of our current economic woes. FDR's regulations and taxes had created 50 years of the highest standard of living in the world for the middle class and protection from the greed of the robber-barons.
2. The Savings and Loan crisis created the greatest banking collapse since the Great Depression. By 1989 over half of the Savings and Loans had failed, along with the FSLIC fund that was created to insure their deposits. This crisis by 1995 had cost American taxpayers $153 billion.
3. The Keating Five, cronies of Sen. John McCain, received slaps on the wrists for having taken down these banks.
4. The junk bond crisis and the beginning of the "greed is good" era.
4. The endless attacks on labor, starting with the Air Traffic Controllers the first week he was in office. Reagan, a former union President waged war on organized labor, the very people who built this country, attacking it on every front.
5. Reduced taxes for the wealthy while increasing taxes on the middle class seven years in a row,
6. Constant reductions in the security net for the middle class, including throwing the mentally disabled into the streets and removing social security benefits for widows and their children,
7. Iran-Contra, Reagan approved of and many of his staff were convicted for illegally providing arms to Iran to be given to the Contras.
8. Moving our country from the biggest lender nation in the world to the biggest debtor nation in the world (at the end of Bush Sr's term) - That is not even mentioning the damage he caused to the UC system as Governor.
10. Nov. 8, 1989 Reagan accepted a $2 million check from the Japanese, supposedly a birthday gift. This was as he left the White House during a decade when the Japanese had been accused of unfair trade practices with American companies leading to the gutting of our entire electronics industry and severe damage to our automotive industry.
And that was just the beginning...
Please join us at POLITICS, SEX & COCKTAILS
Celebrating 38 YEARS OF ROE V. WADE
Presented by The Community Action Fund of
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties
Featuring guest speaker
Maggie Linden
Senior Vice President Public Affairs
Ogilvy Public Relations
- The Changing Political Landscape –