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Here’s Why America Can’t Afford to Give Warren an Inch

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Professor Elizabeth Warren and Assistant Director for Large Bank Supervision Steve Antonakes sign introductory letters to the CEOs of over 170 financial institutions that are subject to CFPB Supervision.

In The Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes explains why even mild compromise with Democrats could unleash terrible consequences. She writes:

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She’ll only get halfway. That’s the consensus on Elizabeth Warren: If the senator becomes president, Congress will wear down her ideological edge and stymie much of her radical agenda. The result won’t be something free-marketeers can love, but it will be something they can live with and then undo at a later date.

Maybe not. The lesson of the 1960s is that political compromises with progressives can be much more consequential than they look—and preclude future reform.

In the early 1960s, progressives and even outright socialists were gaining an unexpected hold on the national imagination. Two ideas Ms. Warren is mooting, repealing right-to-work laws to strengthen unions and expanding health-care benefits, topped the progressive agenda. Then as now, a strong economy fed the expansive mood. America could afford more public generosity.

The unions came first. Under section 14(b) of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, state governments could vote to make collective bargaining voluntary for companies and employees. Nineteen states did just that, and unions sensed the existential threat.

As a senator, John F. Kennedy fought hard for organized labor, but when he was president, Southern and Sun Belt states blocked repeal of right to work, as the state opt-out was known. The president felt he had to throw organized labor a bone. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a Labor Department aide, drafted principles codifying the legitimacy of unions in a new area: the federal government. In 1962 Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988. Kennedy and Moynihan told themselves the order was merely a bone: It authorized collective bargaining for federal employees, but deprived them of strike rights.

Kennedy’s mild compromise triggered an explosion of government unionization. States and towns followed his lead. The public unions used the threat of strikes—illegal or legal—to extract compensation that states and towns could ill afford. Hence today’s state pension crises.

When it comes to Dems you can’t give ‘em an inch. If you do, you may be in for the whole mile. Here’s some of what I have written on the benefits of right to work laws, and the dangers public unionization has created in state pensions:

One bad decision by Kennedy and Moynihan led to a hollowing out of states’ fiscal security. Americans shouldn’t let Warren do the same.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.