If he calls an aide to a member of Congress, you better believe that aide is going to tell the Congressman that Warren Buffet called. And in some instances, I bet you the congressman will try to call Warren Buffet back.
That is why Warren Buffet does not understand that it is Elizabeth Warren's ability to express the anger of millions of Americans that endears her to us. He doesn't have to speak loudly when he wants to express himself. Congress falls all over itself to hear what he has to say.
I know my representative to Congress. He is a great guy and much more accessible to his constituents than others in Congress. He listens to everyone and appears to care about us. But when I call his office, his staff does not say to the Congressman, "Guess who called." And I can't afford to donate to his campaign, and I would not be able to pay big money for a plate a dinner held in his honor even though I like him very much.
Warren Buffet could donate or pay for a dinner. Every member of Congress knows that. That's why he has access. It isn't the brilliance of his personality. It isn't his understanding of the law, especially not of bankruptcy law. It isn't because he has researched the economic dilemmas of the average American family. Warren Buffet has access because he is rich. It's not his personality. He is simply rich. And that buys access.
So Warren Buffet does not have to get angry just to get a hearing for his views.
We little people who have little money do. We have to do something outrageous like Code Pink or big like huge demonstrations, or something spectacular to get a little attention. And even then, we can't begin to get the huge amount of attention that the rich and very rich get from Congress.
So, Mr. Buffet, I realize that you are not the worst person. You are sensible. You are down-to-earth. But sometimes being loud and angry is necessary and good for the country.
Teddy Roosevelt had asthma, and yet he talked as loud and fast as he could. He wasn't the most liberal person really. In fact he was rather conservative in many respects. But he wanted to clean up the corruption of his time. And he did it by screaming over the loud noise that the changing of money in the halls of our government creates. And with his torrent of words, his brilliant use of image and language and his courage and yes, his anger, he went a long way toward cleaning up the horrible corruption of his time.
When I see and hear Elizabeth Warren, I see and hear the energy and conviction and determination that Teddy Roosevelt had. That's what we need right now.
Corruption in government is now called "privatization." Jobs (contracts) that should be done by modestly paid civil servants are now done by "private contractors" for big salaries. Corruption by any name is corruption. Mr. Buffet, you profit from some of that corruption, I'm sure. It's no wonder that Elizabeth Warren's courage and determination make you feel uncomfortable.
Yes. Wall Street profits, and therefore you, profit from that corruption. And in gratitude for the dirty money they and you take from taxpayers, Wall Streeters (including the bankers) nearly destroyed the world's economy. In fact, the damage from their great war against normal, law-abiding wage-earners around the world is still destroying economies of small countries to say nothing of families in the US.
This year (next fall) marks seven years from the year that the Bush administration went to Congress to beg for money to bail out the banks.
Families lost their homes. Well they couldn't afford them anyway you say, Mr. Buffet.
But remember, losing their homes was just the first step. In some states and in California if they had been lured into taking on a second mortgage, the homeowners may have owed deficiency judgments. That is they theoretically did not discharge their mortgage debt just by giving up their home to a foreclosure. They ended up in bankruptcy court -- personal bankruptcy court.
Remember. The banks were bailed out. Homeowners were not.
Many homeowners ended up in bankruptcy for money they owed only because their houses were overvalued when they bought them and undervalued in the midst of the crisis when they lost them due to foreclosure and eviction. Mr. Buffet, homeowners deserved better treatment. In the great inflation in Germany in the 1920s, the courts rewrote the leases so that renters would not be evicted. We could have rewritten the mortgage contracts so that the losses that resulted from the excessive risks taken on by banks could have been shared among poor and rich, so that the poor, the hard-working middle classes, would not have suffered so much. I never heard you suggest such a solution. It would have worked, but the likes of you would not have made so much money off the financial misery of others, the disaster that the banks caused.
For those who were foreclosed and ended up in bankruptcy court, the long night of bad credit and of other things in their lives that went as the economy failed, joblessness or a lousy job, are still darkening their lives.
A Congressman or -woman who shows no mercy on the ****()() bankers and Walll Street pigs who put those people in the precarious positions they are in is a heroine. And there is only one. Elizabeth Warren.
I understand, Mr. Buffet, that you would rather not hear about or see the misery of those who are just starting to crawl out of their economic holes. You have a good reputation. You are a sensible guy. I'm sure that while your share of the Wall Street loot from the greatest theft in the past 70-some years by Wall Street's best and most readily exonerated is hefty, probably larger than even you realize, there are a lot of people suffering down here in the poorer levels of our society. I'm not directly one of them, but I sure seem to know a lot of them.
Mr. Buffet, you should be ashamed. You should get out and talk to the people who lost their homes, their small businesses, their dreams.
Sometimes there is a place for a loud, angry voice. Elizabeth Warren is a medium-sized woman with a very efficient, large brain, a small voice and a lot of energy. We need more of her. We need her in the White House.
A lot of rich, influential people did not like Teddy Roosevelt either. And he got into the White House by fluke and by good luck for the American people.
Warren Buffet, you've had your turn at making a fortune via a sick, monstrous system. Sit down and let someone who understands the pain of people trying to make a living in a healthy, honest way in that sick system.
Mr. Buffet, you can get on TV and opine whenever you want. Now let Elizabeth Warren speak for the rest of us. You've had your say. Shut up, enjoy your money and try to listen for once with our ears.
Let Elizabeth Warren speak for the rest of us without your criticism. Time that you and the rest of the overly rich in America listen silently to the pain of the people and accept the fact that we need change that brings opportunity for all of us, not just for rich guys like you.
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