Joe Biden's Spat With Elizabeth Warren Was Uncomfortable and Weird, But It Could Have Gotten Ugly
Elizabeth Warren got a swift introduction to the perils of frontrunner status at the third Democratic debate on Tuesday night. Pretty much everyone on stage except Julian Castro and Cory Booker—who may be thinking "vice president" has a nice ring to it at this point—jumped at the opportunity to take shots at the new polling co-leader. They abided by Omar Little's principles of regicide with varying degrees of success.
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar formed the Centrist Brigade to attack Warren's healthcare plan as unrealistic and too expensive and people like their private insurance and how are you going to pay for it? (For Klobuchar, in particular, this is part of a rich tradition of inspiring rhetoric.) Others, too, seized on the big numbers involved in a Medicare For All system—$30 trillion over 10 years!—and joined with the moderators to completely ignore that we as a society are projected to spend at least that under our current system. Also under the current system, 30 million more people are uninsured and a big chunk of all that spending goes towards the salaries and bonuses of healthcare industry executives.
As in every other debate, the moderators were desperate to get Warren to say her plan would raise middle-class taxes, a ploy she repeatedly dodged, presumably because she could see the soundbite featuring in a future attack ad. The evasion did not come off well, although Warren's point—that overall costs for the middle class would go down—isn't wrong. Yes, taxes would go up, but people would not pay insurance premiums and deductibles and all the rest. The tax angle is a talking point, and yes, it's a Republican one. In general, though, Warren needs to sort out her message on the money side. (Bernie Sanders, for his part, simply admits taxes will go up.) The healthcare discussion was probably her worst moment in any of the debates, even if she was taking fire from all sides.
Andrew Yang had a slightly bewildering night, but he had an intriguing attack on Warren's—and, for that matter, Sanders's—plan for a wealth tax. He pointed out a number of European countries, like Germany, France, Denmark, and Sweden, have abandoned theirs, at least partly because rich people are so good at evading taxes. This is a problem for any tax on the wealthiest people in our society, but as NBC News' Benjy Sarlin pointed out, even with significant avoidance, a plan like Warren's would still bring in trillions in revenue. Considering the top earners now pay lower effective tax rates than the working class, something clearly needs to be done—and it's not clear how Yang's alternative, a Value Added Tax (VAT), would do the job. Consumption taxes are regressive.
But by far the weirdest Warren-involved confrontation featured—inevitably—her co-frontrunner, Joe Biden. The former vice president had a rocky start on a question about his son Hunter's legitimately shady business dealings in Ukraine. (It is perfectly legitimate to ask why the sitting vice president's son was taking $50,000 a month from a Ukrainian oligarch. It's just that Donald Trump inevitably overplayed his hand—and likely broke the law—pursuing this line of inquiry.) Biden mostly settled down after that until it came time to discuss Warren's first big project in national politics, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Biden, you see, wanted Warren to know he'd whipped votes to get it passed.
Here's that Biden vs. Warren exchange on the CFPB >> pic.twitter.com/NE2fPCwvZO
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) October 16, 2019
The yelling and gesticulating at someone right next to you is a bit unnerving to say the least, but Warren had one of her best moments in response. Biden likes to tie himself to the rosy parts of Barack Obama's legacy, which looms like a shadow over these debates. But Warren flipped the script here and accurately presented the CFPB—which returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million victims of predatory corporate practices in its first six years—as a fruitful collaboration between herself and the former president. There was space here for Warren to really tear at Biden's record on consumer financial issues, particularly his decision to champion a now-notorious bankruptcy bill. (Sanders mentioned it elsewhere.) Maybe she's saving that line of attack for a time when there aren't 46 people on stage.
While Warren rebounded a bit later on, it was no doubt a rocky night for the Massachusetts senator. It's not easy to suddenly become public enemy number one. But by now she's got to know there's a target on her back. She's got to know the moderators will serve up talking points and try to foment conflict. (Also, in this case, they will apparently ask about Ellen Degeneres and whether you have conservative friends and completely ignore an existential threat to human civilization as we know it. Also, there was no question about China. Also, there was no question about immigration.) It's a different proposition when you get closer to the throne. Everybody's shooting at you.
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