Elizabeth Warren Details Plans To Invest In HBCUs & Support Reparations
Presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren stopped by The Breakfast Club on Friday (May 31st) to talk about the 2020 election. From why she chose to run this time around, her student loan forgiveness plan, and reparations, Warren broke it all down for us.
Sen. Warren kicked off her discussion with DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne Tha God by talking about why she decided to run for president in 2020 after opting out back in 2016. "There is so much change we need to make in this country and 2020 is our big chance to do it. I think of 2020 as the election that will decide which direction our country for generations to come. We've come to a fork in the road here." While President Trump needs to go in the next election, Senator Warren also wants us to reckon with "what's been broken, for how long in a country to end up with a guy like Donald Trump as President of the United States." The past few years with Trump in the Oval Office have alarmed Sen. Warren, as well. The thing that alarms her the most is "how much division and hate [Trump] stirs up. How he embraces the racists, the nativists, sexists. He just finds somebody to hate on."
Another thing that's alarming the presidential hopeful? The recent spike in abortion bans across the country. Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi have all instituted strict abortion ban laws in recent weeks. "It's alarming because it's right now. It's gaining momentum. It's not one and everybody said 'whoah back off.' It's one and then the next state says 'oh we can do better than that. we can go further than that. we can push harder than that.' And you're just watching them roll up one after another after another. And here's the thing. Here's what keeps getting me about this. We live in a democracy. At least, that's the theory. The overwhelming majority of people do not want to see us overturn Roe vs Wade."
Sen. Warren has seen that phenomenon with many other important issues facing the American people, as well, including who gets taxed, how much they get taxed, and why they get taxed. "It's true on one thing after another. I proposed a wealth tax. An overwhelming amount of people think that's a great idea. And I'm not just talking Democrats. I'm talking Democrats, Republicans, Independents. A majority. An overwhelming majority of people," she said.
So, what exactly is a wealth tax? Sen. Warren broke that down for us, too. "Anybody who owns a home has been paying a wealth tax. It's just called a property tax. The difference for me is...what I want to see us do across this country is to say to the top one tenth of one percent - that is the fortunes over $50 million - that your fifty millionth and first dollar, you have to pitch in two cents for every dollar in a tax," she explained. "And that's your accumulated assets everywhere. It's your real estate, your diamonds, your stick portfolio, your Rembrandts, your yachts. Whatever you've got. Two cents."
"And here's the deal: if that top one tenth of the one percent - that's about 75,000 families in this country - pitched in two cents...you want to know what we could do with that?" she continued. "Universal childcare for every baby in this country, universal pre-k, raise the wages of every childcare worker and pre-school teacher to a professional level, provide universal tuition free technical school, two year college, and four year college, put $50 billion into the HBCUs, and cancel student loan debt for ninety five percent of those who've got student loan debt, and knock back the opioid crisis by putting $100 million into that. Think how many lives that could touch." Sen. Warren also touch on how her proposed tax would drastically decrease the wealth gap between the black and white communities in America.