Elizabeth Warren Is Right About the Democrats’ Big Problem

Granted, Biden enjoyed only a narrow majority in the Senate, allowing two pro-business conservatives within the Democratic caucus, Sinema and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin—both of whom eventually quit the Democratic Party—to veto much of Biden’s redistributionist agenda. But Sinema and Manchin didn’t sit on the House Ways and Means Committee, nor were they among the rural House Democrats mentioned above. Let’s name them: Representatives Cindy Axne, Jim Costa, Cheri Bustos, Josh Harder, Salud Carbajal, Angie Craig, Antonio Delgado, Kim Schrier, John Garamendi, Julia Brownley, Tom O’Halleran, Abigail D. Spanberger, and Kurt Schrader.

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly joined Sinema and Manchin to oppose Biden’s appointment of David Weil as Biden’s Labor Department wage and hour commissioner. As I explained at the time, Weil was judged too left-wing based on his (greatly exaggerated) views on liberalizing wage/hour regulations to crack down on corporate evasions. Just this past week, a handful of Republican opponents managed to kill three proposed conservative wage/hour bills intended to create more opportunities for corporate evasions. I’m inclined to scoff at any notion that Republicans will someday steal labor issues from Democrats, but, putting this week’s events together with the House’s passage last month of a bill restoring collective-bargaining rights to federal employees, I feel less certain about that.

Warren mentioned in her speech that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who donated $7 million to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, tried to persuade Harris to pledge that if elected she’d fire the antitrust champion Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Harris did not make that pledge, but, as Warren pointed out, Harris didn’t pledge to keep Khan, either. Warren might further have noted that Harris positioned herself to Biden’s right on taxes, proposing a capital gains hike to 28 percent rather than 39.5 percent. “Kamala Harris is listening to business people and getting their feedback on what’s fair and what will lead to more investment in business,” Harris’s billionaire adviser Mark Cuban crowed at the time. Nobody in his right mind believes that if Harris had only lowered her proposed cap gains hike to 25 percent she would have won the election.