The Massachusetts GOP reacted to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) attributing her desire for a mass wealth tax to an “underlying social contract” and concluded that her campaign is built entirely upon “envy.”
Warren on Friday tweeted a flashback clip featuring remarks she made on the campaign trail in Andover, Massachusetts, in 2011.
“It’s a point I’ve made since my very first campaign: Nobody in this country got rich on their own. They relied on infrastructure we all paid for, employees we all paid to educate,” she wrote.
“So if you’re successful, good for you—now pay it forward so everyone has a chance at success,” she added:
It’s a point I’ve made since my very first campaign: Nobody in this country got rich on their own. They relied on infrastructure we all paid for, employees we all paid to educate. So if you’re successful, good for you—now pay it forward so everyone has a chance at success. pic.twitter.com/FAuZhggAGk
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 29, 2019
The flashback features Warren stumping with her hallmark “you didn’t build that” narrative:
You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.
“You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did,” she continued.
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along,” she said to applause.
The Massaschusetts GOP reacted to her flashback, concluding that her “entire” presidential campaign is “based upon envy”:
An entire presidential campaign based upon envy. https://t.co/TH6nYp27Su
— MassGOP (@massgop) November 30, 2019
Former President Obama echoed the same sentiment in 2012, telling a group at a campaign event in Roanoke, Virginia, that successful Americans “didn’t get there” on their own.
Obama said:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The remarks made in Warren’s flashback have become a staple of her presidential campaign, although she has notably shifted her rhetoric toward billionaires, specifically.
“Look I don’t have a beef with billionaires,” Warren claimed during the October 15 debate.
“My problem is, you made a fortune in America, you had a great idea, you got out there and worked for it, good for you. But you built that fortune in America – I guarantee – you built it in part using workers all of us helped pay to educate,” Warren said.
“You built it in part getting your goods to market on roads and bridges all of us helped pay for. You built it at least in part by protected by police and firefighters all of us help pay the salaries for,” she continued.
“All I’m saying is, you make it to the top of one-tenth of one percent, then pitch in the two cents so every other kid in America has the chance,” she added.
As Breitbart News noted, Warren’s claim – that she does not have a “beef” with billionaires – has been contradicted by the statements she has made on the campaign trail, particularly since Michael Bloomberg’s entry into the presidential race.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested that the presidential hopeful has focused on pushing wealth tax proposals in order to divert attention from her own wealth.
“The reality for @ewarren is that this is as much to divert attention from her income and net worth as anything else. Other than steyer she is the wealthiest of all the Dem Candidates. By far,” he wrote, prior to Bloomberg’s entry in the race:
The reality for @ewarren is that this is as much to divert attention from her income and net worth as anything else. Other than steyer she is the wealthiest of all the Dem Candidates. By far. https://t.co/IuW5pVo6Sd
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) November 9, 2019
Warren’s net worth is an estimated $12 million, according to Forbes.
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