image description
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered her presentation to an overflow crowd at Berkshire Community College.
image description
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
image description
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Warren Delivers Economic Policy Presentation To Hundreds At BCC

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Warren said the presentation is still being worked on but she plans to deliver it across the nation in hopes to inspire change.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — When U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's father couldn't work, her mother took a job working minimum wage to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. 
 
"We were one of those families that were always hanging onto our place pretty much by our fingernails," Warren said.
 
"It was a minimum wage job so she could pay the mortgage and put food on the table. She saved our family." 
 
The job wasn't glamorous, it was answering phones. But, it was enough. Now, that can't happen because of the state of the American economy, she said.
 
Warren delivered a "Presentation on America's Agenda" at Berkshire Community College on Saturday that drew an overflow crowd filling a second auditorium to listen in. Over the course of about an hour, the state's senior senator outlined her view on policy throughout the years and rallied people to fight for a government that "works for us."
 
"The system has been rigged for decades so there will never be enough. This won't change unless we make fundamental changes in this country," Warren said.
 
For Warren, the economy for the middle class changed in the 1980s under President Reagan. The trickle-down economic policy he espoused hasn't worked for the middle class and has led to negative impacts all across American life, she said.
 
Now the country's gross domestic product continues to rise, corporations are making record profits, the stock market is up, inflation is low, and unemployment is dropped. But that prosperity is not being seen in most American households, she said.
 
"Who is doing great in this economy?" asked Warren.
 
Warren said prior to the influx of trickle down, in the 1970s, families were putting aside nearly 12 percent of disposable income and debt was accounting for only .6 of that. 
 
"Families had money in the bank, not much debt, that is what is meant by a 'solid middle class.' Today, those numbers have reversed. On average savings have been cut by 2/3 while debt has exploded. Today's families carry 15 times more debt on average than families a generation ago. Now what we've got is less savings, more debt, more families living on the edge of a financial cliff," Warren said
 
Now families are putting 3.3 percent of disposal income into savings while 9.2 is going to debt. Last year, that led to 820,000 families filing bankruptcy.
 
"The American economy looks great from the outside but for most of the families living in it, this economy looks really different," said Warren, a consumer advocate and expert on bankruptcy.
 
But the mainstream thought that Americans are lavishly spending isn't accurate, she said. Families have cut spending in the last 30 years — they are spending less on food, less on clothing, less on furniture and appliances. The thought that Americans caused the debt situation by overspending is false, she said. 
 
What has caused the debt issue for American households, Warren said, is that fixed expenses have grown. She said Americans spend 56 percent more on homes, 104 percent more on health insurance, 275 percent more on college and child-care costs have grown massively. Those increasing costs leave little room so when something happens, families need to turn to credit cards because those expenses can't be cut.
 
"We went from a country that strengthened middle-class families and working families and built opportunities to one that bet on its wealthiest citizens and hoped that the benefits would eventually trickle down for every one," Warren said.
 
The senator outlined the history of the American economy and said it was "boom and bust" from the country's formation until the 1930s. With the 1929 Wall Street collapse and the onset of the Great Depression, the country's policies switched to be one that built and protected the middle class.
 
The government opted to regulate banks, formed the Securities and Exchange Commission, broke up monopolies, and strengthened anti-trust laws. Secondly, the country invested in education with policies like the post-World War II GI bill that set thousands of veterans to college, invested in research and sent men to the moon, built Social Security and Medicare safety nets, and strengthened workers' rights to unionize. The country invested in infrastructure and built out the National Highway System.
 
Warren said those programs weren't perfect because there was still systematic racism, homophobia, and sexism keeping many from those opportunities but it was a step in the right direction. She said 70 percent of the new income generated from 1925 until 1980 went to the bottom 90 percent of wealth earners.
 
"This was an America where people could afford to work and have a family. It was an America where I had a chance to go to college for $50 a semester. It was an American where my mother could support a family and make a mortgage payment on a minimum wage job. Today, that just couldn't happen," Warren said.
 
Now a minimum wage isn't enough to support a family. In the 1980s, policy makers rewrote tax laws to give the wealthiest breaks and creased tax loopholes. Warren said companies were allowed to stash money overseas and more became tax write-offs.
 
Since then, the amount of the federal revenue coming from corporations went from 30 percent of the budget to just 10 percent — which makes it easy for politician to say there isn't any money to spend on things like education or research.
 
The second change made in that time was deregulation and the gutting of the SEC. 
 
"Without a cop on the beat, Wall Street got even more greedy and more reckless. They build business models based on cheating people on mortgages, on credit cards, on payday loans. They loaded up on risks and put the entire economy in danger. We know how this turned out, 2008 was the greatest economic crash since the great depression. All of these changes were really bad for working families," Warren said.
 
Corporations figured out that millions spent on influencing government would lead to billions in profits. 
 
"The system itself was corrupted to serve the wealthy and the powerful. Today, most politicians are not working for the average American family. They are working for people and corporations with big money to spend in Washington. Billions of dollars now flow into campaign coffers of American politicians to tilt them in favor of continuing their support for the wealthy," Warren said.  
 
"And it is not just campaign contributions, it is so much more. Look at lobbying, no one has the exact number from the early 1980s but it is estimated that politically active organizations spent $200 million a year on direct lobbying. That is a lot of money but by 2002 that number had skyrocketed to $1.8 billion. By 2012, it had reached the shocking number of $3.3 billion."
 
There are companies hiring people to write and influence policy in Washington, D.C. Reports are generated with results showing exactly what the companies want reflected in policies and pushed through by politicians who are beholden to them. When there is gridlock in Washington, that, too, benefits the wealthiest corporations that want things to stay the same, she said.
 
The changes were doubly important for the African-American community, she said, as it has expanded the wealth gap between blacks and whites.
 
"In the '60s and '70s, during the Civil Rights era, that wealth gap began to close. Starting with the Reagan, from 1984 to 2013, the wealth gap between black families and white families actually tripled," Warren said. "Our economy is growing. GDP keeps growing during both time periods. Our country is getting richer but the economy is only growing for those at the top. Everyone else is left behind."
 
She illustrated this with a graph showing correlations between union members and income inequality.
 
"When union membership goes up, income inequality goes down. And the reverse is also true. Unions help make sure that the economy and the government work for every one," Warren said. 
 
But the state of the government isn't all that grim, she said, because the middle and working class outnumbers the big corporate influence. Her work in forming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an example of how the government can be taken back, she said. Despite influential lobbyists working against her, she was able to usher in the creation of the bureau, which she credits for giving back $11 billion from Wall Street executives to people who were cheated out of it.
 
"There is optimism in that story. That story says nothing is inevitable. And that is the good news. It is about choice. If our government has been taken over by the rich and the powerful, then the rest of us can take it back," Warren said.
 

The senator received a standing ovation after delivering the speech.
Warren called for investment in education, clean energy infrastructure, and investing in medical and scientific research.
 
"Government is wrong sometimes. But there is a difference between a government that tries to work for us and it needs help getting it better and a government that is just plain old working for somebody else," Warren said.
 
"A weak government can't police Wall Street. A starving government can't invest in students. A torn government can't move decisively against climate change. A captured government can't negotiate a better trade deal. Without government, we don't build a strong connection. Without government, we don't push each other to be better people. We need a government that works for all of us."
 
Warren said if the government can close corporate loopholes, all of those investments can be made. She gave one example:
 
"If we got rid of the tax loop hole that allows corporations to write off obscene multi-million bonuses as a business expense, how much money would we save? $55 billion. The corporations could still go ahead and give the bonuses, they just wouldn't get a tax subsidy from everybody else for doing it. That's all we are asking for. If one loop hole is stitched up, an it isn't even the biggest one, $55 billion. What could we do with $55 billion?" Warren said.
 
The $55 billion could give everyone on Social Security the same percentage raises that CEOs got last year; allow nearly every college graduate to refinance student loans at a lower rate; replace every water line in Flint, Mich., as well as 67 other cities, and double the amount spent on cancer and Alzheimer's research at the National Institutes of Health, she said.
 
She said there are about 20 other loop holes that could be closed, adding more money for those priorities.
 
Warren is calling for raising the minimum wage, refinancing student loans, adopting paid family medical leave, furthering regulations on banks, and passing equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation. She says that isn't a "Democrat agenda but an American agenda."
 
"The worst thing we can do is lay down without a fight. You can't win what you don't fight for and you can't make progress if you don't aim high," Warren said.
 
She called on people to "raise their voices" and support efforts for change. She wants voters to ask every politician if they'd overturn Citizens United to get money out of politics, "put more cops on Wall Street," raise more tax revenue from the wealthiest 10 percent, and strengthen union rights.
 
"They may have money and power but we have our voices and our votes," Warren said. "Change is possible and we know that because we've done it before."
 
After the event, Warren said the presentation is something she is "trying out" here in her home state but looks to spread the message nationally. She doesn't know exactly how it will resonate with voters in other areas but "sometimes you just have to get out there and try to make a difference."
 
She said she'll be looking to make the presentation in other states, on college campuses, and broadcasting it online.

Tags: BCC,   federal officials,   presentation,   Warren,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Central Berkshire School Officials OK $35M Budget

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School Committee approved a $35 million budget for fiscal 2025 during its meeting on Thursday.
 
Much of the proposed spending plan is similar to what was predicted in the initial and tentative budget presentations, however, the district did work with the Finance subcommittee to further offset the assessments to the towns, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said. 
 
"What you're going see in this budget is a lower average assessment to the towns than what you saw in the other in the tentative budget that was approved," she said. 
 
The fiscal 2025 budget is $35,428,892, a 5.56 percent or $1,867,649, over this year's $33,561,243.
 
"This is using our operating funds, revolving revenue or grant revenue. So what made up the budget for the tentative budget is pretty much the same," Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino said.
 
"We're just moving around funds … so, we're using more of the FY25 rural aid funds instead of operating funds next year."
 
Increases the district has in the FY25 operating budget are from active employee health insurance, retiree health insurance, special education out-of-district tuition, temporary bond principal and interest payment, pupil transportation, Berkshire County Retirement contributions, and the federal payroll tax. 
 
View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories