Warren’s Plans Have One Thing in Common: More Government Control

Published November 14, 2019

Like most socialists, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a leading candidate for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, is a huge fan of government “plans.”

According to her website: “Elizabeth has a lot of plans, but they’re really one simple plan: We need to tackle the corruption in Washington that makes our government work for the wealthy and well-connected, but kicks dirt on everyone else, and put economic and political power back in the hands of the people.”

To date, Warren has authored more than 50 so-called plans, covering a wide array of issues, that she claims will magically solve all of the “problems” plaguing America. According to Warren, if she becomes president (highly unlikely at this point), she will implement her plans, even if it requires trampling upon the Constitution.

For example, in her recently released “Securing LGBTQ+ Rights And Equality” plan, she states, “if Senate Republicans put small-minded partisanship ahead of protecting these rights, I will end the filibuster so that we have a path to getting critical legislation like the Equality Act passed.”

Apparently, if she somehow, miraculously attains the keys to the Oval Office, Warren would simply issue edicts from the White House. Her disdain of America’s founding principles—including federalism, limited government, separation of powers, and checks and balances—could not be more appallingly apparent. Sorry, but that is not how things work in the United States.

Putting aside all the debate over the veracity of Warren’s plans, there is one indisputable truth (a foreign concept to Warren) about her plans: If enacted, the central government will become more powerful than ever before.

Using simple pattern recognition, a prevalent theme in every single one of Warren’s 53 plans (so far) is that bureaucrats in Washington, DC should micromanage almost everything. Despite her false promise to “put economic and political power back in the hands of the people,” Warren will really supercharge the central government’s size and scope.

Of course, this will increase corruption, and all other types of government malfeasance. As Lord Acton once said, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

According to Warren, we need all-encompassing government because, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.” I beg to differ—but what Warren fails to realize is that giant government plans almost always exacerbate problems and create all sorts of unintended consequences.

History is littered with government plans that have turned out to be utter disasters. For example, the Soviet Union issued a series of so-called five-year plans that led to mass famine and economic devastation. Massive government plans in China, Cuba, Venezuela, and many other countries have also resulted in abject horror and wanton destruction.

Is Warren ignorant of the sordid history of central planning? Or does she, like most progressives (i.e. those in favor of expanding government power), believe those plans failed because they were not detailed enough? Or perhaps the bureaucrats enforcing those plans didn’t have enough power?

Regardless, Warren is running on the platform that Americans are incapable of making their own decisions or solving their own problems. She wants to increase government power to solve a whole host of economic and social problems—whether or not they are as dire as Warren claims. She also has little faith in the private sector, because most American companies are run by criminal greed heads who prey upon their workers and bilk consumers. Or so she says.

 

These tired old talking points are a farce.

In America (and several other nations), the family, religious institutions, private charities, and even private businesses have been more than willing and able to address the problems that Warren thinks only government can solve. As usual, Warren is out of touch with the views of hard-working, patriotic citizens.

Maybe Sen. Warren should leave the Beltway Bubble and trek across America’s heartland—instead of flying over it on a private jet while lecturing all of us about climate change.

If she accomplishes this monumental feat, she might finally realize that Americans, without the aid of overwhelming government plans, have gotten along just fine for a few hundred years, thank you very much.

[Originally Published at Townhall]