‘I’ve Got A Plan’: Policy Wonk Elizabeth Warren Gains Momentum With Detailed Policy Proposals
With a crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls competing for their party’s nomination, Elizabeth Warren has emerged as the detailed policy wonk of the group, according to Business Insider. The Massachusetts senator is catching the attention of voters and pundits alike through an almost continuous stream of tangible proposals on topics ranging from tackling student loan debt to protecting abortion rights.
In fact, Warren has gone as far as to tailor her campaign appearances in order to deliver and summarize particularly impactful policy proposals based on the crowd at hand. For example, as The Inquisitr reported, she drew cheers, even in a deeply conservative town in West Virginia, by addressing the issue that mattered most to many of those voters: the opioid epidemic that has affected so many in their town.
During a rally this past week at George Mason University in Virginia, Warren talked about Department of Defense ethics reforms aimed at the defense contractors who so often benefit from valuable military contracts. Specifically, her proposal calls for changes such as prohibiting intelligence agency officials from working for foreign governments and creating public disclosures when lawmakers are being lobbied.
“I have three brothers — they all served in the military and I know the kind of sacrifice that the military make, that their families make,” she said.
“I just want to be able to say to them as an American, ‘I guarantee that when a decision is made at the Department of Defense, it’s not a decision to enhance the profitability of a major contractor. It is a decision to protect the safety and security of the United States of America.'”
Elizabeth Warren is the first major presidential candidate to roll out a comprehensive strategy for protecting the right to an abortion https://t.co/bSWVm6qduK
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) May 17, 2019
Playing to the Virginia crowd, which largely included Department of Defense employees and defense contractors, Warren said that there were many fine people working in those jobs.
“That’s us!” quipped one in attendance.
And despite speaking near the epicenter of the private defense contractor industry, the crowd seemed to appreciate her talk of reform, even in their business.
In what is becoming something of an informal slogan for the candidate, Warren begins the answers to many of the questions she is posed with an increasingly familiar refrain: “I’ve got a plan.”
The statement is, more often than not, followed by a detailed and often wonk-ish explanation of her underlying policy proposals. Those proposals are frequently supplemented by clear explanations of oft-asked questions such as where funding would come from or how the policy would be implemented should she become president.
