In case you have not been following the campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (AKA Fauxcahontas) is one of the many candidates. Sen. Warren is also known as The Candidate With The Plans. She seemingly has a plan for nearly everything; healthcare, Wall Street, big business, corporate governance, regulation, the environment, and on and on. The main feature that runs through all her plans for the country when she is elected president, is Punishment. Every one of her many plans is designed to punish one or another group of Americans, whom she deems not sufficiently socially conscious. So, below I will lay out for you all the various plans Elizabeth Warren has proposed, and which group’s ox will be gored. Then, you can decide if you would like to live in Elizabeth Warren’s America. A big shout out to the Wall Street Journal, whose editorials compiled all these Plans in one place.
Wealthy Americans: Ms. Warren has proposed a Wealth Tax, to tax net worth over $50 million at 2% per year, and 6% over $1 billion. To prevent those wealthy Americans from just deciding to leave the country, she would levy a 40% Exit Tax (yes, before you could renounce your US citizenship, you would have to pay the government 40% of whatever you have left after the Wealth Tax). About 75,000 households might be subject to the taxes. [unintended consequence: wealthy citizens would have to sell assets to pay the taxes, potentially causing the stock market to decline with all those sales at once, which would not help your 401(k) value] Warren would increase capital gains taxes for the wealthiest 1%. Thus, the wealthiest might have to pay 40% of their gains to the government. She would apply a yearly tax on gains, by mandating “mark to market” of assets, even those not sold (today, capital gains are not recognized before an asset is sold). Warren would tax the sale of financial assets like stocks and bonds (a “financial transactions tax”), and charge big banks a “systemic risk fee”.
Employer “Medicare for All” tax: Companies with at least 50 workers would be charged an “Employer Medicare Contribution” equal to 98% of their recent outlays on health care for their employees. This tax might increase or decrease depending on inflation. [unintended consequence, your pay would decrease in the amount of that tax, and the company might have to lay off employees] If this did not bring in enough revenue, Warren would go after large companies with high executive pay.
Multi-national and large corporations: Warren would raise the top corporate tax rate back to the 35% it was before the 2017 tax law passed. This rate would also apply to world-wide company earnings. Foreign companies would also be subject to tax for earnings in America. [unintended consequences: companies would raise the prices of their products and possibly curtail hiring; US companies might lose business to countries with lower tax rates] There would also be a “Corporate Surtax” on profits over $100 million, of 7% with no exemptions-this would be in addition to the existing 35% rate. Expensing of assets would slow, so companies would pay higher taxes for a longer time.
Ordinary Americans: She would increase Social Security taxes on all workers and employers, and apply the tax to higher levels of income so higher-earners would pay more into the system. She would also apply a 14.8% surcharge on net investment income. Then, she would increase Social Security payouts to retirees.
The Healthcare Industry: Warren would bring about Medicare for All, including illegal aliens. She would mandate Government-run medical care for all Americans. She would phase out all Private Health Insurance. She would pay all doctors Medicare rates (which are substantially less than private insurance pays). She would pay all hospitals 110% of Medicare rates (again lower than private insurance pays). Warren would mandate lower payments to all medical specialists, especially those deemed “over-paid”. She would threaten pharmaceutical companies with assorted taxes and fees if they did not lower the prices of all their branded medicines; she would also threaten to have the government do its own pharmaceutical manufacturing, thus destroying the industry. [unintended consequences: doctors quit practicing, and retire in large numbers; hospitals close when the payment rates from the government do not remotely cover their costs; thousands of employees in the health insurance industry lose their jobs; pharmaceutical companies close or move overseas, as they can no longer afford the research and development of new medicines whose costs are covered by the higher charges for the period of their patents; the result-less and poorer health care for Americans without people to deliver it]
The Energy Industry: Warren would mandate the end of so-called “fossil fuels”, ban fracking, and halt energy leases on federal lands. She would vastly increase energy research, with the goal of 100% emission-free transportation and 100% carbon-free power generation. She would retrofit 4% of all dwellings and buildings each year to be “carbon-free”, kill new oil pipelines, and subject all new projects to a “climate test”. She would guarantee workers who lose their energy-industry jobs full pay and benefits in whatever “new energy economy” jobs they get. Intended consequences: Energy companies close, pipeline companies go bankrupt when there is no longer supply of oil and gas for their pipelines; landowners lose lease income from the drilling on their land when fracking is banned; thousands of workers lose their jobs.
Education: Charter schools lose federal funding for any expansion.
Taxpayers: Much of student debt would be written off, thus charged to the majority of US taxpayers. This also punishes those students who either paid for their own educations, or whose parents did. College would be “free” for all Americans. Pell grants would increase.
Big Tech: Break up Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Unwind many of their mergers with other companies, like Whole Foods (Amazon) and DoubleClick (Google). Regulate them as “online utilities”. [unintended consequences: the Internet is no longer “free”. Google and Facebook would start charging fees, and your ISP payments would be much higher]
Banks: Institute a new “Glass-Steagall” act to break up big banks.
Firearms owners: Institute federal licensing for all types of firearms and ammunition. Raise taxes on all guns and ammunition (30% on guns, 50% on ammo). Ban sales of so-called “assault weapons”, and hold manufacturers liable for shooting deaths with their weapons. Mandatory federal registration of all currently-owned firearms.
President Donald Trump: Elizabeth Warren would immediately start extensive investigations of President Trump the minute he leaves office. She would launch “open-ended criminal investigations” of Mr. Trump and “anyone who worked for him”. Thus, she would criminalize political differences. This, in itself, is horrifying.
So, do you think you’d like to live in Elizabeth Warren’s America? Not I!
