USA Today - 03.03.2020

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OPINION

E

lizabeth Warren has a plan to

deal with the new coronavirus.

The Massachusetts senator

has laid out the steps a president

must take now, including $400 bil-

lion in spending to contain the out-

break of the virus and cushion the

damage it will do to our economy.

That’s $397.5 billion more than the

Trump

White

House pro-

posed last

week.

And just

like her proposals to fight the opioid

epidemic, cancel student loan debt

and take on the anti-competitive

dominance of tech giants like Google,

Facebook and Amazon, along with

her calls to end the filibuster in order

to get things done in the Senate, it’s a

thoughtful solution to a pressing

problem.

Again and again, Warren has risen

to the challenges we face, clearly de-

scribing each one and laying out a

path to meet it. There has been no

candidate in my lifetime who has bet-

ter matched her country’s needs.

The woman who warned us about

the coming of the Great Recession

doesn’t separate President Donald

Trump from the Wall Street collapse

that took trillions out of our economy

and cost us millions of jobs. She

knows he personifies the greed and

corruption at the heart of our tangled

crises of inequality and climate

change.

There’s no question that Warren is

the best candidate to take on both

Trump and the entitled perversion of

a system that has already given us

two overgrown rich kids who lost the

popular vote, delivered massive tax

giveaways to the rich and risked fi-

nancial mayhem for the vast majority

of Americans.

The question is whether she’s best

for her party. The answer is hell, yes.

Former Vice President Joe Biden

has said that if Trump is booted from

the White House, “you will see an

epiphany occur among many of my

Republican friends.” But Warren

knows that the politics that got us

here won’t be the politics that save

us. The obstructive obstinacy of the

Republican Party, and the gutting of

the middle class, while distracting

voters with convenient scapegoats,

predates Trump. And it will outlast

him, if the republic manages to sur-

vive this presidency.

The 2020 election marks the 100th

year of women voting. Republicans,

who are in the midst of an unprece-

dented attack on women’s reproduc-

tive rights, will renominate a known

misogynist. Elizabeth Warren also

has the right plan for that. It looks

like nominating a woman, or two, for

the top of the Democratic ticket.

MATT ROURKE/AP

D

emocrats will be voting today in
14 states to choose a presiden-
tial nominee — and if you be-
lieve the polls, we may be heading for a
disaster. Not just for the party, but for
the United States of America.
We simply can’t afford to nominate
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an arrogant, fin-
ger-pointing socialist whose call for a
revolution is
a $60 trillion
fantasy.
I’m sup-
porting Mike
Bloomberg
for president, and I urge you to do the
same. He, and he alone, can provide
the leadership we need to bring us to-
gether and end the toxic civil war that
is ripping our nation apart.
This was made abundantly clear in
last Tuesday’s South Carolina debate.
With only one exception, the Demo-
cratic candidates for president shout-
ed, bullied and blustered their way
through an embarrassing two hours.
Bloomberg — an accomplished
businessman who led New York City
as mayor for 12 years — was the only
person on that stage who had the guts
to speak the truth. When he was asked
a question, he responded to it directly,
unlike the other candidates who re-
verted to their original, canned talking
points and said little more.
There were four people on that
stage — Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden,
Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar
— who have collectively served more
than eight decades as U.S. elected offi-
cials, charting national policy. If they
believed that something is wrong with
America, why didn’t they get it done?
Given their failure to accomplish this,
why should we trust them now — as
opposed to a candidate like Mike who
saw problems in New York and found
ways to fix them?
My father had a saying that I often
repeat in my courtroom when it’s clear
that someone is trying to pull a fast
one: “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me
it’s raining.” That’s my reaction to
Sanders’ hectoring call for a socialist
revolution that will magically make all
our problems go away.
The New York Times said Mike
“may be remembered as one of the
greatest mayors in New York history.”
He spurred economic growth that led
to 400,000 new jobs. Under his leader-
ship, the number of New Yorkers with-
out health insurance fell nearly 40%.
He drove crime down to record lows,
pioneered ambitious public health ini-
tiatives and helped raise air quality to
the highest levels in 50 years.
America needs a leader who can re-
store the decency that made us the en-
vy of the world and get things moving
again. Mike Bloomberg is that man.
But the hour is late.
I want peace in this great nation of
ours — and so should you.

Bloomberg

can end

America’s

civil war

Judy Sheindlin, of
the Emmy-winning
series “Judge Judy.”

T

o defeat President Donald

Trump, we need a candidate

who can win back places like

the Upper Midwest. Having been

born in Flint, Michigan, and having

represented the region in the House

and Senate as both a Republican and

a Democrat, I am confident Sen. Ber-

nie Sanders of Vermont is our strong-

est candi-

date to de-

feat Trump.

Polls show

Sanders is

running

strong nationally and in states like

Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsyl-

vania. That is because working fam-

ilies know Sanders is on their side.

For instance, take the curse of

NAFTA that has sent millions of U.S.

jobs offshore, shut down hundreds of

factories and strip-mined the living

standard of our displaced blue-collar

workers. Only Sanders had the judg-

ment to vote against the original

NAFTA and Trump’s new update.

Similarly, millions cannot afford

medical care and are working more

hours, often at two or three jobs, to

earn enough to support their fam-

ilies, as they struggle with school

debt and high housing costs.

In response, only Sanders is une-

quivocally pushing to expand Medi-

care to cover all. He has called for

higher wages and tax changes that

will reverse the massive tax cuts now

flowing to Trump’s wealthy friends.

And he has proposed to use this new

revenue to make college tuition free.

Sanders has pointed out that the

three richest families in America now

have more combined wealth than the

entire bottom 50% of Americans,

160 million people. It is Robin Hood

in reverse — the superrich accumu-

lating national wealth, draining the

lifeblood out of the working poor and

destabilizing America. That is why

Sanders is fighting to increase the

minimum wage to $15 an hour and to

expand Social Security benefits.

Working families also know Sand-

ers is on their side because his is the

only leading campaign to reject mon-

ey from billionaires and special inter-

ests. Instead, he is relying on contri-

butions from everyday people, which

means as president, he will answer to

the people, not wealthy donors.

Sanders has catalyzed the kind of

movement we will need to defeat

Trump. It is a grassroots uprising in

both urban and rural areas, among

people of all ages, races, ethnicities

and political affiliations.

This movement understands that

if Sanders is nominated and elected,

it will be a new day. With President

Sanders, the rule of law will be re-

established, and we will finally be on

a path to a future of economic, social,

racial and environmental justice.

Sanders

fights for

working

families

N

o leader in history has inflicted

more intense, sustained

trauma on America’s values

and rule of law than Donald Trump.

That can finally change when Ameri-

cans vote on Nov. 3, but only if Demo-

crats unite behind the leader best

equipped to defeat Trump and secure

Democratic majorities in Congress.

We must em-

brace a candi-

date who can

stabilize our in-

stitutions, pro-

vide a positive

road map for the

future and soothe the nation’s trauma

after four years of Trump. That candi-

date is former Vice President Joe Bi-

den. It’s time for Democrats to co-

alesce behind Biden as our best hope

for turning the page on Trump’s horrif-

ic chapter in American history.

Choosing a single candidate to en-

dorse during this primary is difficult

for me. We benefited from a deep

bench of talent this year, and I think

the world of the other Democratic can-

didates. I consider many of them to be

close friends. Sens. Elizabeth Warren

and Bernie Sanders and Mayor Mike

Bloomberg are among the brightest

leaders our party, and country, have

ever had. My connection to Sanders

and Warren is deep — former staffers

of mine are leaders in both their cam-

paigns — and I have the utmost re-

spect and admiration for them and the

movements they’ve inspired. They

have reinvigorated our party and been

instrumental in illustrating the power

of our Democratic ideals.

Even so, with the stakes for this

election so high, I believe we need a

stabilizing, deeply experienced candi-

date to repair the tremendous damage

Trump has wrought on our country

and institutions. Our candidate must

appeal to the broadest coalition possi-

ble to unite the country, elect more

Democrats nationwide and lead Amer-

ica with a positive and inclusive alter-

native to the dark vision espoused by

Trump and his sycophantic allies in

Congress. I believe that Biden is the

candidate best positioned to win the

election and enact the progressive pol-

icies and ideas we all care about.

Biden represents the starkest-pos-

sible contrast to Trump, in nearly ev-

ery way. There is no one better to right

the wrongs of the past four years than

a man whose character, policy chops

and experience are matched only by

Trump’s corresponding weaknesses,

incompetence and unsuitability for

our highest office.

Trump represents the worst in

American politics. To defeat him, we

need a candidate who represents the

best of America. Joe Biden is the can-

didate who is best equipped to win and

best able to lead us past Trump’s dark

chapter in American history.

Biden

represents

the best

of America

Harry Reid of

Nevada, former

Senate Demo-

cratic leader

Warren

is the best

president

for our times

This

Super

Tuesday,

cast your

vote for ...

Jason Sattler,

Michigan-based

political analyst

Donald W. Riegle,

former U.S. senator

from Michigan