GoLocalWorcester’s Woman of the Year in 2015

Monday, January 04, 2016

GoLocalWorcester News Team

It seems impossible that Elizabeth Warren has only been serving in the United States Senate for just three years. She has emerged as one of the biggest voices in American politics and is now a perennial potential Presidential candidate.

She is the elected official that conservatives love to hate and she is the most powerful and relentless voice in reforming Wall Street. They hate her.

Moreover, she may in some ways be a combination of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, but more credible. She is that powerful female, feminist voice fighting for equity combined with the progressive/socialist positions expounded by Sanders.

Walk the Talk

Whether you like her talk, she walks her talk. The result, unlike many Democrats who claim to be fighting the big banks and Wall Street, is that she is relentless and consistent.

And she pays the price. If you review Hilary Clinton’s largest campaign donors they are littered with the biggest banks and Wall Street powers. In contrast, Warren’s donors are women’s groups (EMILY’S List is #1); #2 is MoveOn.org, and academics from Harvard, MIT and the University of California system comprise #3 thru #5. Follow the money, and it usually unveils who is true to their word. Like Warren’s policies of holding the banks accountable or not - she is true.

Wall Street

She and a Representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md) investigation revealed that the partial repeal of Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 716 was originally designed to prevent taxpayer bailouts of federally-insured banks with risky swaps holdings) "now allows banks to keep nearly $10 trillion in swaps trades on their books that - were it not for the Dodd-Frank rollback - would be "pushed out" to entities that are not insured with taxpayer funds.”

In addition the report she helped to author found that “regulators have not conducted an analysis of the financial and taxpayer risks posed by the repeal, despite the fact that it allows banks to trade trillions of dollars of risky derivatives.”

The provision was repealed during passage of the 2014 "Cromnibus."

Most Powerful

One year ago today, The Fiscal Times called her one of the six most powerful in American Politics.

Warren’s role as chief spokesperson for her party’s liberal wing was amplified after she won a coveted spot in the Senate Democratic leadership responsible for shaping policy. Meanwhile, Clinton has lavished praise on her and has begun to noticeably tailor her speeches for more liberal audiences.

The Senior Senator from the Commonwealth has emerged as the most dynamic progressive in decades.

For her leadership and consistency, GoLocalWorcester names Elizabeth Warren the Woman of the Year.