Does Elizabeth Warren have a plan for her plans?
Joe Biden wants to know.
Elizabeth Warren has a lot of plans.
But how would she enact them if elected president? That’s the question Joe Biden has recently begun raising.
“You have to have plans, but you have to be able to execute those plans,” Biden reportedly said at a fundraiser last week in New York.
According to The New York Times, the former vice president is expected to reiterate that message during the third Democratic debate Thursday night in Houston, the first in which he and Warren will share the stage. As the Massachusetts senator has risen in the primary race on her platform of potentially transformative left-leaning proposals, Biden has pitched what he argues are equally progressive, if less ambitious, plans. Furthermore, he says his long record as a dealmaker in the Senate is evidence that his proposals could actually get passed.
“We need more than plans, we need a president who can deliver progress on the most pressing issues facing Americans — which Joe Biden has proven he can throughout his career,” a Biden adviser told CNN this week.
“The more expensive a plan is doesn’t make it more progressive,” the adviser added. “Running for president is about making people’s lives better, and that only happens if the change proposed becomes reality.”
The Warren campaign declined to comment on Biden’s tacit critique headed into the debate, but she was asked about the argument Tuesday. In short, Warren says it starts with building a movement.
“I think that we start with a plan, and then we get out there and fight for it,” she told reporters Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
“To me, that’s what being president is all about,” Warren continued. “It’s about laying those plans out, and showing the direction for this country, and leading the fight, and bringing people along. That’s how we hold our government accountable. That’s how we make sure it works not just for a handful at the top, but that’s how we make sure it works for everyone.”
So how do they actually become law?
Warren has faced scrutiny before about how exactly she would pass sweeping policy proposals to make child care and college more affordable through the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a slim majority— not to mention ideas, like Medicare-for-All and a Green New Deal, that are contentious even among Democrats.
For starters, Warren has noted that there are things a president can do without legislative approval and has outlined several executive actions she would take on “Day One” of her presidency, such as strengthening anti-trust enforcement, initiatives for closing the pay gap for women of color, and moratoriums on fossil fuel drilling offshore and on public lands. The former Harvard Law School professor has also often argued that “personnel is policy,” alluding to the impact presidential appointees can have on regulatory agencies.
Still, her foundational agenda items would have to go through the Senate. And even if Democrats do win a majority in the chamber, it would likely only be by a margin of a few senators. In other words, a united Republican Party could filibuster most Democratic agenda items.
If they do, Warren says she would be prepared to eliminate the 60-vote threshold, which both parties have chipped away at amid partisan obstructionism over the last decade.
“This business that Democrats play by one set of rules and Republicans play by a different set of rules — those days are over when I’m president,” Warren told Vox.com’s Ezra Klein in July. “We’re not doing that anymore.”
In the interview with Klein, Warren also expanded on what items she would prioritize next. First, would be the anti-corruption bill, which she first introduced more than a year ago and says could ease the path for the other legislation to follow.
“Washington works for the wealthy and the well-connected,” she said. “The corruption bill starts to knock it back, but you’ve got to get out there and beat this drum every day. It’s going to take a lot of popular support and a lot of demand.”
The bill would place new restrictions on lobbying and conflicts of interest in Congress and bolster ethics enforcement. But, again, Warren says it would also require “a lot of popular support.”
“The second thing I want is that wealth tax,” she said, referring to her proposal for a 2 percent annual tax on all assets worth $50 million or more. The tax, which would increase to 3 percent on assets above $1 billion, would affect roughly 75,000 Americans and provide a funding mechanism for many of Warren’s other plans.
With the tax, Warren told Klein “we can provide universal child care, universal pre-K, raise the wages of all our child care workers and pre-K workers, universal technical school, two-year college, four-year college, and cancel student loan debt for 95 percent of the people who’ve got it. We cancel student loan debt for 43 million Americans across this country.”
“The vision of what government can do and whose side government is on changes just like that,” she added.
Warren also noted that she’s not waiting for the election to push her agenda. A number of her bills — including on anti-corruption, corporate governance, and affordable housing — already have Senate sponsors and companion legislation in the House.
“My hope is that they’ll run it over in the House all the way through the legislative process,” Warren told Klein. “Hold hearings on it. Get a vote on it, because look at the position that puts us in come January 2021, if we have a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate, and we’ve already vetted these bills. … Now we’ve got a chance to start making a real difference early.”
