When it comes to the size of government, the media tend to take an Oliver Twist view of it -- "Please sir, can I have some more!" MSNBC provided a prime example of this leftist ideology on Tuesday morning, when anchor Stephanie Ruhle had on far-left Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and urged the potential Biden VP pick to expand government into the lives of ordinary Americans, spending huge sums of taxpayer dollars in the process.
Ruhle started off by touting a recent op-ed from Warren which demanded radical spending on a variety of government programs:
RUHLE: You're out with a new op-ed laying out what you'd like to see in the next relief bill. It includes $175 billion to public schools and $50 billion to keep child care facilities open. What is the number one thing that you will fight tooth and nail for?
WARREN: Child care. You know, child care and public schools. Understand this, again, you want to get this economy started again? Then you’ve got to be able -- parents have got to know there is a safe place for their children to go and that means we need to invest in child care and we need to invest in our public schools
Republicans have pointed out that Democrats are just seeking to turn the coronavirus epidemic into an excuse to radically grow the size of the federal government, something the left has always denied. But here Elizabeth Warren is saying that quiet part out loud. In her next question, Ruhle was more than willing to push the narrative along with her:
This is sort of the third pillar in his Build Back Better agenda where it’s $775 billion, including 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave and it aims to put 3 million Americans back to work in new care and education jobs. Now at a top level, people say, this is a huge price tag we can't pay for it. But unless we create a foundation with this, can we thrive as a country?
Claiming government-funded child care is the only way to "thrive as a country" is the kind of emotional argument that avoids the facts and excuses the massive cost. It also ignores the fact that state and local governments have supported child care themselves for decades without federal intervention.
Eager to tout Warren's radical influence on the Biden campaign, Ruhle wondered: "How much have you helped the former VP craft his economic agenda?" Warren assured that the presumptive Democratic nominee was coming up with the socialist ideas all on his own: "But let's be clear these are Joe Biden's plans. He has embraced it and as President of the United States, he will advance it. I am just here to say keep it up."
But Ruhle was not done as she then cheered left-wing federal regulation of the banking industry:
Today marks the tenth anniversary, if you can believe it, of the Dodd/Frank act. There are still people today who believe Dodd/Frank is too broad and it should be rolled back. But where would we be economically in the midst of this devastating economic crisis if we didn't have Dodd/Frank?
Where might we be? Well, exactly in the same place. The secret of the Dodd/Frank Act is that it really did nothing to alleviate risky lending in the loan industry. It heaped regulations on banks and lenders to no avail, as the banks moved lenders and paperwork around to continue doing what they had been doing before. On top that, it has damaged economic growth since it was passed in 2010.
All Democrats, especially anyone auditioning to become Biden's vice presidential running mate, can expect nothing less than adoring treatment from their media supporters at MSNBC.
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Read the full transcript below to learn more
MSNBC Live
07/21/20
9:22 AM ETSTEPHANIE RUHLE: Joining me now to discuss this process, somebody who is definitely in there fighting, Democratic senator from Massachusetts, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Senator Warren thank you for joining us this morning. I want to start by talking about the Republican proposal. Despite thousands of small American businesses shutting their doors completely and massive layoffs at big companies, so there is no payroll tax to even cut for much of them. Republicans are back talking about a payroll tax cut and they are discussing limiting money for testing and tying school funding to whether or not schools reopened. Would you vote for a bill that includes any of those measures?
ELIZABETH WARREN: You know, that just doesn't make any sense. To get this economy started again, we need to get the pandemic under control and until we do that, Donald Trump can have as many tantrums as he wants to have, but people are not gonna feel safe sending their children to school they're not going to feel safe going into the workplace they're not going to feel safe going into stores to shop. What we need to do is we need to start first with how to make people safe and make sure that we're protecting people's health and that means lots of money into the same things. We need it in testing, we need it in contact tracing and we need it in making sure that we've got plenty of personal protective equipment and that we are starting to ramp up to get ready for being able to distribute a vaccine if and when it becomes available. That's where we start. And then we move into what we need to do to help support the economy.
RUHLE: You're out with a new op-ed laying out what you'd like to see in the next relief bill. It includes $175 billion to public schools and $50 billion to keep child care facilities open. What is the number one thing that you will fight tooth and nail for?
WARREN: Child care. You know, child care and public schools. Understand this, again, you want to get this economy started again? Then you’ve got to be able-- parents have got to know there is a safe place for their children to go and that means we need to invest in child care and we need to invest in our public schools and by the way, I should point out that Vice President Biden just today has come out with a strong plan to support child care across this nation. Understand, child care facilities, for decades now, have run on razor-thin margins and because of the pandemic, many of them now are not only closed they are saying they may never be able to reopen. If we don't support those child care centers and treat them like basic infrastructure in this economy, then that's going to mean millions of parents who simply cannot go back to work. We owe this to our children and we owe this to the parents who want to be able to go to work, so child care and money for public schools.
RUHLE: I want to talk about former Vice President Biden's plan that you just mentioned. This is sort of the third pillar in his Build Back Better agenda where it’s $775 billion, including 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave and it aims to put 3 million Americans back to work in new care and education jobs. Now at a top level, people say, this is a huge price tag we can't pay for it. But unless we create a foundation with this, can we thrive as a country?
WARREN: You know, I think you're going exactly to the right point, Stephanie. We can't afford not to do this. Now Vice President Biden has put his pay force into the plan but the key is what it means for our families and what it means for our economy. Think about it this way. We say that we'll invest in roads and bridges so people will be able to get to work and goods and services can move in our economy. That's basic infrastructure. Water and electricity. But if you want millions of parents to be able to go to work, then they're going to need child care and that's what Joe Biden understands. He understands both that we -- the economy works when we invest in families. His plan is both economically sound and meets people where they are at a human level. It's Joe Biden at his best, in my view.
RUHLE: How much have you helped the former VP craft his economic agenda?
WARREN: Look, I think that child care is something everybody, as a Democrat, should be running on frankly, Republicans should be picking it up. But let's be clear these are Joe Biden's plans. He has embraced it and as President of the United States, he will advance it. I am just here to say keep it up.
RUHLE: Let's talk about former vp embracing you. He told my colleague Joy Reid last night that while he is considering four African-American women as his possible running mate, he said they're not the only ones in the game that obviously means you, how has this process been for you?
WARREN: Look, any decision is up to Vice President Biden and I'm going to support whoever he chooses Democrats are committed and united to beat Donald Trump, to take back the Senate, to keep the house and to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot 2020 is so important and I am just counting the days until November 3rd Joe Biden's going to win this thing, and Democrats are going to win, and we're going to make the changes we need to make in this country
RUHLE: There is another role that you are 100% qualified for and that could potentially be former Vice President Biden’s Treasury Secretary. Former senator Barney Frank recently told CNN that you wouldn't be the right pick for the Treasury Secretary because you have such an adversarial relationship with Wall Street. What do you say to that?
WARREN: Oh, come on, Stephanie. Look, I'm focused right now on November we're going to win in November and we all should be focused on this Donald Trump demonstrates every single day not just that he's incompetent it's also that he is dangerous and people are dying because of this pandemic because Donald Trump has not been able to show the appropriate leadership our economy is in worse trouble than it otherwise would have been because Donald Trump is in -- is leading us in the wrong direction. So for me, that's where this is.
RUHLE: Well, I mentioned Barney Frank. Today marks the tenth anniversary, if you can believe it, of the Dodd/Frank act. There are still people today who believe Dodd/frank is too broad and it should be rolled back but where would we be economically in the midst of this devastating economic crisis if we didn't have Dodd/Frank.
WARREN: Oh, wow if we didn't already have Dodd/Frank on the books, we would be in a whole lot less -- in a whole lot more trouble. Here's how I think of this: Dodd/Frank basically was two parts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the regulations on the big banks. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau means that giant banks have less opportunity to boost their profits by cheating people and right now, when people are under a lot of economic stress, when they are taking on a whole lot more debt, it's powerfully important that that agency is there. At least to keep a level playing field. As far as regulating the banks, look, the Republicans have been out there trying to roll back those regulations. They now have people in the Trump administration who have been trying to roll back those regulations. At the very time when those regulations, the ones that demand higher amounts of capital and less risk, that's what's helping protect our economy. So my view on this is Dodd/Frank is part of the reason we're not in worse trouble right now
RUHLE: One way to protect everyday Americans and our economy is oversight. So I want to talk to you about oversight of the $2 trillion that has already been approved through the C.A.R.E.S. Act I want to talk about the paycheck protection program. You approved this program. The idea of this program is to help small businesses but specifically, help them keep their people employed. There's now a lot of talk in Washington to make all of these loans forgivable, even if companies didn't use the money to retain their employees, which was the point of the program what do you say to this and to all of the American taxpayers who are looking at this money and are saying, are you kidding me we're allowing this robbery?
WARREN: So, you know, I want to actually refocus this just a little bit, Stephanie because the way I see this is, I am really worried about transparency here. I pushed to make the big loans public. I think it is the right thing to do. I am very concerned about whether or not businesses of color have been able to get access to borrowing. There's some evidence that they have not and that we need more guardrails on this kind of lending program. But overall, keep in mind we also created in that last bill a half a trillion dollar slush fund for giant companies and so far, the Trump administration, after making all kinds of promises about how transparent they'd be and the terms on which they're lending it out, they've been stonewalling on this. Look, it's clear that Donald Trump doesn't want oversight; he's fired four inspectors general. No president in history has ever done anything like this. And they are trying to work to help their buddies on Wall Street, to help the giant corporations, and hope that the rest of the American people won't see it and I think that's outrageous.
RUHLE: But senator, that is the least surprising thing in the history of ever, okay? Given that, what are Democrats going to do about it even the oversight commission still isn't funded, and there's no chairperson for it.
WARREN: Stephanie, the fact that it is not surprising does not mean we shouldn't keep fighting and talking about it. This cannot become our new normal. I push on this every single day. I get out and talk about it. I tweet about it. Look, I want to see what the Trump lobbyists are out there right now -- what kind of favors they're getting as we're in these negotiations. What are we going to do about it we're going to keep fighting we're in negotiations now with the Republicans. Just starting in as you pointed out this evening to start negotiating what the next pandemic package looks like. I want to know who is lobbying, and I want to know who is getting paid in this process. Is it the folks who have already benefited from government handouts or the folks who are just negotiating to get more government handouts? You're right the Trump administration has resisted at every point. That's why we just simply can't rely on good faith we need to write it down in the statute, which they must do, to comply with the law in terms of disclosure and if we don't do that, then we should not reach an agreement with Mitch Mcconnell we need oversight, and we need it hard and fast and guaranteed in the law itself.
