Politics 2020: The Money Side of Things Post #2: Elizabeth Warren’s Money POV
This post is part of a larger series on the 2020 Presidential Race and I want YOUR input!
Email me by clicking the button below to share your questions, thoughts and ideas. I will be interjecting regularly scheduled money posts with a political post once a month.
Welcome to Verdi’s first deep dive into a Democratic Presidential candidate! Each of these posts will include the following: 1) a quick and dirty fact list about the candidate, 2) an analysis on the candidate’s views on key money related issues and, 3) the Verdi Advising opinion on the candidate.
Elizabeth Warren Facts:
From Oklahoma
Background in Education & Law
Law professor for more than 30 years at:
Rutgers University
University of Texas-Austin
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
Massachusetts Senator since 2013
As a Senator, she has focused on child care, health care, improving the functioning of the finance industry and fighting corruption.
Has two adult children & three grandchildren
Married to Harvard Law School Professor Bruce Mann for 38 years
Has a golden retriever (so American!)
Elizabeth Warren is a wonk in every way. As such her plans are extensive and numerous! You can check them all out here. Since we’re pretty sure you don’t want to read a thousand page dissertation on all of her beliefs (and we don’t want to write one), we’re only going to dive into a few of her most key financial plans.
Where She Stands On Taxes
The short answer? She wants to tax the wealthy more. The details:
Estate Tax: decrease the size of inherited estates that get taxed from $22 million to $7 million
Ultra-Millionaire Tax: households with a net worth of $50 million or more would pay an annual 2% tax on every dollar of net worth (not income!) over $50 million and a 3% tax on every dollar of net worth over $1 billion.
This change will result in $2.75 trillion in tax revenue over a 10 year period
This will only affect the top 0.1% wealthiest of Americans
The Verdi Vote: 👍 (Decreasing the wealth gap in this country is necessary in order for us all to have financial security)
Where She Stands On The Economy
Warren is nervous about our economy. She sees particular weak spots in: household debt, corporate debt & the manufacturing sector. She recommends that we fix these weak spots and therefore avoid another financial downturn by:
Increasing the minimum wage
Cancelling (a lot of) student loan debt
Lowering rent costs (see more on that below!)
Lowering child care costs (see more of that below!)
Enforce lending guidelines for corporations
Strengthen the manufacturing sector by implementing Warren’s Green Manufacturing Plan
The Verdi Vote: 👍 (we agree with her on the weak spots of our economy and like her proactive approach to fixing the issues)
Where She Stands On The Cost of Living
Warren recognizes that most people (50% of married seniors & >70% of unmarried seniors) rely on social security, yet the benefits are often much too low to cover basic needs. Additionally, (sorry fellow Millennials), the account that funds Social Security benefits is in trouble and unless big things change, we will not receive even close to the benefits needed to cover our costs. Based on this disparity, Warren proposes that we immediately and aggressively expand Social Security benefits. We’ll pay for that expansion by levying additional taxes to the richest 2% of Americans.
The Verdi Vote: 👍 (we’ve paid into Social Security and want to see that return!)
Warren supports Medicare for All, which basically means that we’d all have health insurance through the Federal government instead of through private insurance companies. She has not explained how she proposes to pay for this change.
The Verdi Vote: 🤷♀️ (we need to see the #s)
As I’m sure no one reading this will be surprised by, child care is expensive! The national average cost is $1,230/month. Yipes Stripes indeed.
Warren proposes a universal plan in which the federal government partners with local providers to create a network where families can find the right kind of child care for them (we’re envisioning that this will look similar to the Affordable Care Act website, but that’s total conjecture). The child care will be free for families that make less than 200% of the federal poverty line (i.e. if you’re a family of two and make less than $33,820 it’ll be free). The cost will stair-step up from there based on your family’s income.
The cost of this new program will be covered by Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax.
The Verdi Vote: 👍 (we’d love to make baby decisions without focusing solely on the $$ implications)
Warren proposes to reduce rental costs by increasing the supply of affordable housing. Based on her plan, the Federal government would invest $500 billion over the next decade to build and improve housing units. She projects that the program will result in a 10% decrease of rental costs across the board.
Warren says that she’ll pay for this investment by changing our estate tax law. Currently, heirs don’t pay estate taxes unless they inherit more than $22 million. Warren’s proposal would lower than number to where it was when George W. Bush left office - $7 million.
The Verdi Vote: 👍 (rent is bonkers!)
Where Verdi Stands on Warren
Overall, we like Elizabeth Warren and her policies, but recognize that her views are not likely to come into fruition, or at least not many of them. Presidents often only have one or two big policies that they are able to move through legislation (think: the Affordable Care Act for Obama). We love that, except for Medicare for All, she has clear plans and transparent proposals for how to pay for the additional costs associated with those plans.
Want to give to the Warren campaign? Click here.