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Opinion
The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
News / Opinion / Columns

Ambrose: The Elizabeth Warren threat

By Jay Ambrose
Published: April 28, 2019, 6:01am

While most other presidential candidates of the Democratic kind are tiptoeing around the question of impeachment proceedings against you know who, Sen. Elizabeth Warren says he is definitely guilty of high crimes, including collusion with the Russians or something an awful lot like it.

Therefore, she tells us, the House must act against this worst of all presidents who received bountiful help in the 2016 election from Russia and then told his fellow Putin admirers to keep it coming.

I did not know this Harvard law school professor had bought a Sherlock Holmes hat and was out investigating for two years at the same time as special counsel Robert Mueller and his team and actually found out more about collusion than they did. But wait. It’s maybe not evidence motivating her. The thing is, she has not been getting a lot of attention, donations or support in the polls. This should help.

I know, I know, that’s cynical and a guess, but impeachment proceedings would be nothing more than chaos afflicting us all, seeing as how our legislators can’t chew gum, act out tragedies and pass important bills at the same time. The fire and fury would likely come to nothing, even with phony obstruction charges being front and center, because the Republicans who constitute a majority in the Senate would not produce the two-thirds vote necessary for eviction.

This issue tells us just part of the Warren story, however. For instance, she does not seem to grasp the importance of our overwhelming debt and the interest that has to be paid yearly and is working its way to being equal to all revenue. Spending is the chief culprit of what bipartisan experts say could be a massively destructive crisis, and note for starters that Warren is for the Green New Deal.

Other spending ambitions?

Tens of millions of voters will love Warren for getting rid of $640 billion of the $1.5 trillion student loan debt by just possibly making it part of the national debt. She also figures on making two-year and four-year public colleges free if you can’t afford the tuition.

She backs a Medicare for All plan that would do away with private insurance companies and lower medical fees enough to degrade care enormously. The cost would still be about $32 trillion over 10 years, it’s estimated.

Impeachment

A couple of these programs might make sense if we could afford them, but we cannot and there are cheaper solutions.

Warren does have a plan to pay for all of this. She wants an “ultra-millionaire” 2 percent wealth tax on assets over $50 million of the richest Americans.

In my own mind, I have impeached Warren as a candidate, but if you believe in fiscally imprudent, authoritarian big government and destitution, vote for her.

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