Some have argued that Warren’s plan isn’t progressive because middle-class and upper-middle-class people benefit from it. But that is misguided
Last week, a number of commentators and thinktank analysts pounced on Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan to cancel student debt for 95% of Americans, provide universal free college at public schools, increase Pell Grants, end federal support of for-profit colleges, and invest heavily in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Their criticism: the plan isn’t “progressive” because middle-class and upper-middle-class people benefit from it.
As I read these critiques, it struck me that although these commentators use the phrase “progressive”, they mean it in a narrow way that is not only misleading when applied to the Warren plan, but also at odds with how the new generation of economic progressives think about public policy. Let me explain. (And full disclosure: I have been a longtime adviser to Senator Warren).
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2VFotQ8
