Wall Street Journal Column Says Elizabeth Warren’s Policies Are ‘Disastrous,’ Ignores Actual Data

[Galraedia]

Source: ThinkProgress

In the pages of today’s Wall Street Journal, the leaders of the centrist think tank Third Way argue that the economic populism of Elizabeth Warren would be politically “disastrous” for Democrats. To embrace her policies, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler argue, would send Democrats over a “populist cliff.” As an alternative, they suggest cuts to Social Security and Medicare to finance investments in infrastructure and public schools.

The authors rely on a seemingly random assortment of anecdotes (the mayor of New York City hasn’t won an election for Governor or Senator in 144 years!) to dismiss an array of policies championed by Warren — tax increases for the wealthy, closing corporate loopholes, breaking up large financial institutions. To bolster their alternative, they cite the election of 2008, even though Obama and other Democrats nearly unanimously rejected entitlement cuts that year.

One thing that’s missing: actual data. As it turns out, the policies Third Way trashes as “disastrous” are overwhelmingly popular with a broad spectrum of Americans. Meanwhile the alternatives proposed by Third Way are rejected by voters by even greater margins.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/03/3012791/wall-street-journal-column-says-elizabeth-warrens-policies-politically-disastrous-ignores-actual-data/

[yesphan]

1. What elsed would one

expect from the Fox Street Journal ?

[Roy Rolling]

24. "Centrist Third Way"

What a load of crap. Third way is infested with investment bankers whose only opinions are those that benefit the 1% while exploiting the 99%.

And that is what is termed "centrist" by the Fox Street Journal?

[go west young man]

2. They would would't they?

They stand to lose money if she brings about responsible regulation on their industry. Hence they are all crooks and the WSJ is their flagship.

[rickyhall]

3. Corporate Democrats

Sound just like repubs...

[tsuki]

4. Rupert Roo is a misogynist. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. They're disastrous to the Wall Street Urinal

The rest of us are okay with them.

[mitty14u2]

6. "News Corporation subsidiaries" WSJ Wall Street Journal

Fox News Corp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:News_Corporation_subsidiaries

[Jack Rabbit]

7. What's worse is that the policies embraced by the Third Way are unpopular for a reason

They. just. don't. work. They. are. nothing. more. than. a. kinder, gentler. rehash. of. Republican. austerity. measures. that. failed. before. .(again and angain and again). and. are. failing. right. now. in. Europe.

The way to get out of a severe economic downturn, such as the economic crash of 2008 and that other hummer in the 1930's, is to put money in people's pockets so that they will spend it. That is why FDR was one of our truly great presidents and Ronald Reagan is not. It's time to reject that black magic that the Simpson/Bowles Commission conjured up out of the murky Wall Street swamp and embrace a new New Deal that works for The People.

There is something a little different this time, namely, that the largest American corporations are not inclined to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States. They can throw cruel austerity measures, but that's still not going to solve the problem. It just means that 99% of Americans are going to die cold, hungry, broke and probably soon. It won't help the 1% in the long run, either, since they will no longer have a middle class to whom to sell junk that most of us didn't really need in the first place. It also won't solve the problem if the government employs people in order to give them a paycheck so they will buy things unless private enterprise uses its profits to employ middle class Americans in order to keep the economic engine well tuned.

If those Wall Street thieves continue to demonstrate that they are not interested in changing their wicked ways, then we shall arrange for them to end up like European nobility in French Revolution and try, this time, to resist a demagogue like Robespierre. In the end, the 1% needs us more than we need them, and that scares those bastards out of their boots.

[Galraedia]

9. Third Way? More like the Third Reich.

[SoapBox]

20. +1

[AdHocSolver]

34. There is a growing middle class in China that will replace a dwindling US middle class.

The 1 percent has been working with the Chinese government for years to create an educated middle class in China of scientists, engineers, and business professionals.

The U.S. is being turned into a corporate colony to be a source of raw materials (oil, food stuffs, minerals) to supply the Chinese economy with the means of expanding and sustaining corporate domination of the planet.

The U.S., with its smaller population and its penchant for support of human rights and environmental issues, has become a hindrance to the 1 percent's goal of corporate (ie., fascist) domination of the planet.

The endgame of the 1 percent is not merely profit. It is total control of the planet.

The purpose of trade agreements such as NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, and even more so, the proposed TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), is control of trade and thereby secure total control of all economic activity on the planet.

Whoever controls economic activity controls political activity.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. I shit on The Third Way --

I stand with Warren, as any liberal/Democrat worth their salt should.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. Hear, Hear!

I couldn't have put it better!

[Gothmog]

10. This is a very weak editorial

I was surprised at how weak this editorial was.

[mikeysnot]

26. when you have no facts on your side.

You are only left with deceit.

[sakabatou]

12. The WSJ bullshitting?

NO WAY!

[TBF]

13. Anything disatrous for Wall St.

is A-ok with me.

[Populist_Prole]

18. +1000

Their haughtiness toward the 99 percent has always been a hallmark, so I'll just adopt the mirror reverse of their worldview and apply it just as viciously.

[Laelth]

14. Americans under 30 have a more favorable opinion of socialism than of capitalism.

If the Democratic Party won't represent the people of this nation, we'll find someone else. The Third Way will not work any more. Democrats who ignore this trend risk destroying the Party.

-Laelth

[Jackpine Radical]

28. Some Americans over 65 have a similar opinion of socialism & capitalism.

And BTW, I place no weight one way or the other on Liz Warren saying she's not running. In fact, I put no weight on much of anything as a predictor of Presidential electoral candidates or race outcomes 3 years in advance of the race. There is always a front-runner 3 years out. When is the last time one of those front runners actually got the nomination, let alone the White House? Remember, in 2005 nobody had heard of Obama & he was denying what few rumors there were of a possible 2008 run.

[Laelth]

29. Hear, hear! n/t

-Laelth

[Jack Rabbit]

36. Another hear, hear

I'd rather see the government run the mines, oil wells, banks and provide health care than see a continuation of the legalized white collar crime that passes for capitalism nowadays.

Freedom means the right to criticize the government in a public forum and not be charged with a crime; or, if one is charged with a crime, to be given due process as a right without being called a terrorist (or even if one is called a terrorist). It has nothing to do any supposed right a marketeer has to be free of regulation so he can rob his customers.

There is such a thing as society and it grows out of human nature. Ayn Rand's assertion that man is a selfish and aggressive lone hunter is a half truth at best and calumny against the entire human race at worst. Primitive humans hunt in packs because it is our nature to do so. We, collectively, have the right to organize the market to assure that it will work for everybody and to give businessmen and consumers alike the confidence that no one is out to just give them the business. I, for one, no longer have that confidence.

While I just said that socialism is an acceptable remedy for the ills of unregulated capitalism, I would be happy to settle for capitalism like what we had before 1980, when common sense regulations kept the marketeers from cheating the public, depleting resources faster than they can be replaced or fouling the environment, as well as a robust labor movement that assured manufacturers of a large middle class to consume their products. Just who do the Koch brothers think is going to buy Dixie Cups after their political stooges have cut the last patch of mesh from the safety net and reduced the minimum wage to zero and demonstrate that they are very happy to pay it? Now, there's a vision of an economic system that contains within the seeds of its own destruction.

[quakerboy]

15. How would they know?

Im wondering when they were tried, to be able to draw any conclusions about their efficacy.

[lexington filly]

16. Is the "Third Way" like a prequel for a Hillary campaign

to soften the electorate? Bill Clinton ran as a centrist and though I adored his political artistry and his speeches, much of what he did economically caused harm after he left office with all the doors unlocked for Wall Street and the 2%, then Republicans throwing them wide open. To my mind, you can call yourself a centrist Democrat or centrist Republican but it's all code for pro big corporations and big financial institutions. The only difference is in a very few social issues.

Placing their editorial in the Wall Street Journal is like an ad in the classifieds: Wanted. Disenchanted upper class Republicans and Democrats to cobble together faux political party to capture the next Presidential election.

I'd love to see a woman in the Oval but if Hillary wants my vote, she's going to have to move her beliefs and actions a whole lot closer to Senator Warren's----and not just for the primaries.

[daybranch]

17. absolutely

again absolutely.

[Divernan]

39. Those few social issues are de minimis tokens compared to rampant corporate/1% favoritism.

And dangled to serve as low cost distractions. We have been jerked around for years by threats posed by Obama's catfood commission and multiple negotiations when it's deliberately "leaked" that chained CPI and other cuts to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are always on Obama's negotiating table and part of his grand plan. We're expected to tug our forelocks like a bunch of serfs and be grateful that so far the status quo has remained and these threatened changes have not been implemented? Meanwhile the current index used to calculate COLA in no way accurately or fairly reflects or properly weights the budget elements for seniors/retired Americans. Yes the formula for COLAs should be changed, but to make it MORE in line with financial reality, not less so.

ACA will be a great improvement for many, but it is NOT single payer and benefits Big Insurance by forcing many to buy their policies.

Protecting gays & women in the military is the right thing to do, but it conveniently does not cost the govt. anything to do so, and attracts no MIC special interests lobbying against it because there's no profit in those discriminations, and making the military more attractive to women/LGBT increases the reserve of cannon fodder for wars.

And America's "minimum wage" (emphasis on the MINIMUM) remains inhumane and disgraceful.

The last legislated increases in the federal minimum wage, in 2007 and 2008, raised it by steps from $5.15 in 2006 to $7.25 in 2009. That produced the highest purchasing power for the minimum wage since 1981 — but that was still less than its value in 1967.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/04/4668634/minimum-wage-increase-gets-a-push.html#storylink=cpy

If the minimum wage had grown at the same rate as the earnings of the top one percent of Americans the federal wage floor would be more than triple the current hourly minimum of $7.25. Instead, the minimum wage has been lower than a poverty wage ever since 1982.

The New York Times compiled those and other basic facts about the minimum wage into an infographic. Together with demographic data about who actually holds minimum-wage jobs — less than a quarter of the minimum-wage workforce are teenagers, and nearly four in ten are over the age of 30 — the graphic makes the fundamental case for fighting inequality and economic hardship by raising the minimum wage. The horizontal red line in the Times graphic indicates the hourly wage necessary for a single parent working full-time with one child to avoid poverty.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/01/3007011/minimum-wage-percent-leave-workers/

In the years since Bill Clinton left office, he's increased his personal (personal, NOT the Clinton Foundation) wealth by over $50 million. But the purchasing power of minimum wage employees has remained below the poverty level. What's wrong with this picture? Who's part of the one percent? Does anyone seriously believe that corporations and big money interests would be paying his exorbitant personal speaking fees OR contributing to his Foundation if they did not anticipate the possibility that the Clintons would regain the White House and remember who bankrolled them personally and politically?

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Wall Street's Policies Are ‘Disastrous,’

And Rupert owns the WSJ.

I hope Elizabeth Warren runs for president in 2016.

[closeupready]

21. Neither impressed nor fooled. Warren for President!

[Brigid]

22. The Wall Street Journal . . .

Is fit only to be used to line the area where I put my cats' litter box.

[silvershadow]

23. That's funny: The Elizabeth Warren Journal (aka her record) indicates it is Wall St whose policies

are disastrous.

[Orsino]

25. Murdoch stacks the court. n/t

[KansDem]

27. Hmmmmm..."Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street, Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street"...

That's a toughie!

[Laelth]

30. +1. LOL. n/t

-Laelth

[closeupready]

33. LOL, yup, there we go.

It's self-evidently a laughable 'dilemma'.

[L0oniX]

31. Elizabeth Warren is what happens when a politician doesn't need corporate campaign funding...

or is she a House extortion racket front? "You didn't pay enough when it was expected so we will sit back and watch Warren attack you" I don't trust 99% of politicians no matter what they seem to be. There's way too much money in it.

[merrily]

32. The Right will say it and the Center Right will swear to it.

Posters who claim that liberals simply cannot be elected anymore will have hundred of links to post.

Yummy. Can't wait.

[Uncle Joe]

35. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Galraedia.

[green917]

37. the middle of the road

"The only things found in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos"

Who gives a rat's ass what 3rd way thinks? Their policies have been proven time and again to be an unmitigated disaster for whoever professes them! Screw them and their "run to the middle"mentality!

[The Wizard]

38. Everything with Rupert Murdoch's name on it

is unadulterated propaganda. WSJ has no credibility. Best used as bird cage liner or shredded for kitty litter.