By Thomas L. Knapp
Whenever and wherever too much government power produces bad policy and terrible results, US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) can be counted upon to pop up with the same proposed solution: More government power and more bad policy. Surely that will fix it.
Current case in point: Oil prices.
“Putin’s war is causing gas prices to rise,” she tweeted on March 8, “but this is no excuse for large oil companies to pad their bottom line with war-fueled profits. Senate Democrats are watching closely — and already working on a windfall profits tax.”
And then, the very next day: “We need to use every opportunity for economic pressure to hold Putin accountable — and @POTUS’ decision to ban Russian oil in the U.S. is the right thing to do.”
Oh, and by the way: “The President and Senate Democrats will use every tool to bring down costs for families.”
Every tool, that is, except resisting the temptation to push those costs up with economic sanctions, strangling regulations, and punitive taxes.
It’s not that Warren is economically illiterate. As an entrepreneur of sorts, she flipped houses for a while before managing to parlay her terrible ideas into both political power and a series of sweetheart book deals that made her a multi-millionaire. So she can presumably do basic arithmetic well enough figure out that pushing costs up doesn’t bring costs down.
But if her problem isn’t stupidity, what is it? The most likely candidate seems to be jealousy.
She’s appalled whenever she notices that other people seemingly feel entitled to make their livings without her permission and absent her direction. Why, the nerve!
She can’t get her head around the idea that anyone, anywhere could possibly make anything work without the benefit of Elizabeth Warren’s omniscience and expertise.
She’s enraged when she learns that something, anything got done without a phone call to her office to get her blessing first.
She’s not content to just take a good deal of your money, borrow more money in your name, and spend that money as she pleases. She wants your attention, your allegiance, and your gratitude, too.
Well, why shouldn’t she feel that way, given that you and she have so much in common — you want to run your life, and she wants to run it too.
And if Elizabeth Warren running your life makes your life more difficult and expensive, she’s fine with that.
Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
