If it’s one thing Elizabeth Warren has a lot of, it’s plans. Since announcing her candidacy she has rolled out proposals to fix everything from student debt to the country’s broken healthcare system. On Monday, the senator from Massachusetts unveiled her plan to tackle the corruption that is running rampant in Washington.
“If you choose to be a public servant, you should serve the public – not your own financial interests or the financial interests of the rich and powerful,” Warren writes in a Medium post detailing her solution for ending Washington corruption.
Among the biggest takeaways from the extensive proposal include banning lobbyists from all fundraising activities and strengthening criminal anti-corruption statutes so that politicians will no longer be able to accept gifts or payments in exchange for government action. Also under her plan, senior officials and members of Congress will be banned from serving on for-profit boards, whether or not they receive compensation for it. And she will close the loophole that allows federal judges to escape investigations for misconduct by stepping down from their post.
In her proposal, Warren also takes a swipe at Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House, saying that she will clarify the definition of “a thing of value” in campaign finance laws to incorporate intangible benefits, including opposition research from foreign governments, and tangible benefits for campaign purposes, such as large hush-money payments.
Those keyed into the Mueller report and the lengthy list of allegations following his 2016 run, will remember that senior members of campaign’s team, along with his son Donald Trump Jr., took meetings with Russia to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, also admitted to paying adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, $130,000 in hush money to keep their affair a secret.
Recently reports surfaced that Vice President Mike Pence stayed at a Trump property while visiting Ireland, although the meeting he was to attend was three hours away from the actual hotel. That’s in addition to the fact that Trump often stays at his own properties when traveling and has strongly advised government officials and foreign lobbyists to do so as well. Under Warren, all of that stops.
“Donald Trump is a walking conflict of interest,” Warren says of the man who occupies the Oval Office. She is taking on those like Trump who use their positions to line their pockets, including big corporations and billionaires who have in the past, used their monetary influence to create loopholes and gain relaxed restrictions for their own gain.
“My plan lays out nearly a hundred ways that we can change our government to fix this problem – from improving public integrity rules for federal officials in every branch of government to ending lobbying as we know it, fixing the criminal laws to hold corrupt politicians to account, and ensuring our federal agencies and courts are free from corrupting influences,” Warren notes before adding, “And I’m just getting started.”
To read the plan in its entirety, visit elizabethwarren.com.