Monday, January 30, 2012

Elizabeth Warren's Big Insurance loving past ? The Greenroom

posted at 3:44 pm on January 30, 2012 by Jazz Shaw
[ Elections ]??? printer-friendly

Elizabeth Warren is the next big thing in Massachusetts politics. Fresh from her stunning failure to be appointed as head of the consumer protection agency she helped to develop, she deftly pivoted to setting the wheels in motion for a run at the Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown. Her methodology was clear: nobody is looking out for the little guy. It?s not fair. Somebody has to protect you from the big, bad, capitalism loving Republicans and their big business masters.

It?s a great message, isn?t it? And it fits in quite well with Team Obama?s 2012 strategy. There?s just one little problem, and it?s found lurking in Warren?s past in the private sector. The title of this piece by Holly Robichaud in the Boston Herald pretty much sums it up. Insurance past should sink Lizzy.

While Marsha Coakley and Lizzy Warren share the same personal flaws of being out of touch with the Massachusetts middle class, the Harvard professor also has a potential deadly political sin in her background. Maybe it is the reason President Obama didn?t nominate her to head up the consumer agency. It is not a secret that his administration believed Lizzy couldn?t survive the Senate confirmation process.

One of the Harvard professor?s many well-com-pensated part-time gigs included consulting for Travelers Insurance. I know that it is hard to believe that on one hand, Democrats would be bashing an industry, and on the other hand they are making money from it. To be a Democrat is to be a hypocrite.

What did Lizzy do to earn $44,000 in compensation from the insurance company? She made it harder for claimants to collect.

Now, I?m no expert here, but that doesn?t really sound very consumer protectiony to me. According to the article, Warren lent her expertise to Travelers to help them develop a strategy to structure a bankruptcy deal where they could avoid making millions of dollars in payments to patients exposed to asbestos. The total lawsuits amounted to something in the range of $500M.

Say? would those be some of the same ?factory owners? and their insurers who never got rich on their own and owed it to society to give something back because of the social contract? If you?re basing your entire candidacy on being the Defender of the Little People, this doesn?t exactly do anything for your credentials, does it?

Source: http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/01/30/elizabeth-warrens-big-insurance-loving-past/

osu osu reno news syracuse shonn greene oklahoma state plane crash syracuse university

No comments:

Post a Comment