Warren praises Biden, Harris policies: ‘I love a good plan’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a progressive who waged a policy-focused presidential campaign, praised the plans put forth by former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as the pair work to unite liberals around their ticket.

“I love a good plan, and Joe Biden has some really good plans — plans to bring back union jobs in manufacturing and create new union jobs in clean energy. Plans to increase Social Security benefits, cancel billions in student loan debt and make our bankruptcy laws work for families instead of the creditors who cheat them,” the Massachusetts lawmaker said Wednesday on the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

Warren gained momentum in her 2020 presidential bid by casting herself as a policy wonk, often remarking on the campaign trail, “I’ve got a plan for that.”

While her White House bid was ultimately unsuccessful, she helped thrust a slate of issues to the forefront of the Democratic primary, including canceling student debt, making higher education more affordable and imposing higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

Biden later adopted some of Warren’s plans, including her proposal to repeal parts of a 2005 bankruptcy bill he backed as a senator that included means testing, separate bankruptcy processes for consumers based on wealth, credit counseling and other requirements she slammed as “onerous and complicated.”

Biden also embraced the 2016 plan from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to make public colleges and universities free for families whose income is below $125,000.

“These plans reflect a central truth: Our economic system has been rigged to give bailouts to billionaires and kick dirt in the face of everyone else,” Warren said on Wednesday. “But we can build a thriving economy by investing in families and fixing what’s broken. Joe’s plan to ‘build back better’ includes making the wealthy pay their fair share, holding corporations accountable, repairing racial inequities and fighting corruption in Washington.”

Warren’s speech follows a similar one from Sanders on Monday in which the former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate urged progressives to unite behind Biden and Harris despite a primary season in which some liberals expressed skepticism of the more centrist candidates.

“To everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake,” Sanders said on Monday. “We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”