It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to feel confident about Elizabeth Warren being named as our next president. Even Democrats are feeling apprehensive about voting for her – and this is because she cannot answer a simple question: where is the money going to come from?
Warren has a number of elaborate plans about what needs to be done when she gets into office. This ranges from Medicare for All to dealing with tuition costs. While all of these plans are great, many want to know where the money is going to come from, especially since the country is in a budget deficit already by billions of dollars.
Her answer to that is simple: “There’s always money.”
That sounds like a great answer, but it’s simply not the truth. There’s not always money. While money is always going into the government, it’s being spent just as fast as it comes in. That means that she’s going to cut various expenses, though it’s not something she wants to talk about until she’s voted in as president.
Where could the money be cut? Military spending cuts would leave us vulnerable to attack, which isn’t a good idea with tensions rising in China, Ukraine, Russia, and even Iran. Educational spending cuts would leave the country in more of a shortage than it already is, causing a significant amount of stress in public schools. The list goes on and on in terms of where she could cut (but shouldn’t).
If she isn’t going to cut, that means that she’ll raise taxes. No one wants to pay more in taxes no matter how much they might like to see Elizabeth Warren become the first female president or even like some of the ideas that Warren has. Warren wouldn’t think twice about raising taxes, but it’s easier for her not to address that issue.
“There’s always money.” Every time she’s asked about how she’ll pay for her policies, that is the three-word response that she provides. It was fine to accept that answer months ago, but she’s still a frontrunner in the presidential primaries for the Democratic Party. With Biden, Sanders, and Buttigieg as her main competition, that three-word answer isn’t going to cut it any longer.
The Senator from Massachusetts laid out some of her “plan” when talking with the present of the National Education Association, Lily Eskelson Garcia. When Garcia asked about including the funding for Title I schools, Warren said that paying for it is all about priorities. She said, “Come on, there’s always money.” That’s when she said the part that made every military member shudder. She asked if we’re going to spend money on defense or on children. For Warren, it’s an either/or situation.
Most people want to see the money spent in both areas. They want to see money spent in defense to ensure that borders are secure and that the US isn’t left vulnerable. They also want to see the money spent on children in order to take care of tomorrow’s future. That’s not what Warren would have planned if she makes it into the Oval Office, however, and this is why it’s becoming less and less likely that she’ll get the DNC nomination let alone be able to beat Trump in order to become the next president.
Many of the Democratic frontrunners have criticized Warren’s approach to the money. Biden and Buttigieg are among the most vocal to call her out on not being honest about where the money will come from to pay for the big plans that she touts. Warren usually waves those away as “Republican talking points.” However, it’s an issue when even Democrats are expressing concern.
It’s all well and good for Warren to make promises about spending trillions of dollars here and billions of dollars there. However, those billions and trillions of dollars that she’s talking about has to come from somewhere – and there are a lot of great problems that are already lacking in sufficient funding. The money isn’t there and no one wants to pay more in taxes to make sure that the money is there.
This leaves Warren in a situation where she’s making a bunch of empty promises on her campaign trail. She needs to stop telling people that there is always money because there isn’t always money – and as a Senator who has already seen how Congress and budget-balancing goes, she should know that better than almost everyone. Democrats will want to hear a real plan for where the money will come from before they’re going to eagerly give her their vote.
