Elizabeth Warren Would Vastly Expand Government Powers

Elizabeth Warren films a video with the CFPB new media team announcing the CFPB “Open for Suggestions” project.

You don’t have to be paying any special attention to the Democratic presidential campaign to know that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign centerpiece is based on anti-corruption.

Francis Menton, who believes that government is inherently corrupt, recently conducted an evaluation of EW on political corruption.

The government consists of human beings, and it’s just part of human nature that people will act in ways to help those who somehow further the financial and career interests of the government officials.

Elizabeth Warren’s view, not surprising, is opposite the Manhattan Contrarian’s. Warren boasts that she has a plan to solve many woes (the Manhattan Contrarian counted 37), each of which is backed by either government coercion or government money.

The plans in the aggregate amount to a vast expansion of the federal government and its powers and its ability to allocate resources. And at the same time, Warren’s other major campaign plank is that she is the anti-corruption candidate. Really.

How exactly is this supposed to work? Repeal human nature, perhaps? On September 16 she gave a big campaign speech in Washington Square Park in New York City. (Somehow I missed it, even though I probably could have heard it if I had just opened my windows.) Excerpts (from vice.com):

• “End lobbying as we know it.” Generous applause.
• “No more lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.” Wild applause.
• “Anyone who wants to run for office will have to put their tax returns online.” Unhinged applause.

Mr. Manton spent an undisclosed amount of time going through Warren’s 37 proposals, not one of which addresses the corruption of, say, the Clinton Foundation.

Exhibit #1 – The Clinton Foundation

As one example among many of my posts on this subject, here is one from August 2016 covering the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation had collected some $2 billion in donations in the period 2001 to 2015, supposedly for charitable works. During most of that period, Hillary Clinton had been either running for President or serving as Secretary of State. A large percentage of the $2 billion came from people or governments with some major interest before the U.S. government or State Department. My post covers various government favors granted to certain of the donors.

Billions to Clintons’ Lifestyles

Meanwhile, tens of millions of dollars from the $2 billion went to support the personal lifestyles of the Clintons and/or the employment of potential Clinton campaign staff. Nobody was ever prosecuted, and in any event it’s not clear what the crime would have been. . . .

Or, try finding the one that addresses the corruption of deep state actors in the FBI and national security agencies using their powers to investigate and disadvantage the disfavored political campaign for President. Again, not there.

Or, how about the proposal that addresses the corruption of labor unions using government-granted coercive powers to take dues from members who support one political side and using those dues to support the other political side. Again, not there.

Menton looks at some of the major world countries that assert powers to control the economy that Warren would have the U.S. government assert. Here, Mr. Menton gives a list in his  September 15 post of the six countries in the world other than the United States with the largest populations: China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil and Bangladesh.

Each of them, also listed in the Manhattan Contrarian, has very restricted private economies, “where the government exercises extensive control over who can do what.”

Warren Doesn’t Understand What Real Corruption Is

The fact is that the vastly expanded government role that Warren envisions will inherently bring comparably expanded corruption and reduced prosperity. That’s how it works. Warren doesn’t seem to know that.

It can only be called unforgivable ignorance.

Read more here.