Thursday, November 21, 2019

Where 2020 Democrats Stand on Economic Inequality

From the Washington Post, updated on November 18

With the stock market at an all-time high, the debate about wealth accumulation and inequality has become a top-issue in the 2020 campaign. The growing hostilities between the ascendant populist wing of the Democratic Party and the nation's tech and financial elite have spilled repeatedly into public view over the course of the primary campaign, but they reached a crescendo with the news that billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, may enter the race.

The leaders of the populist surge, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) have cast their plans to vastly increase taxes on the wealthy as necessary to fix several decades of widening inequality and make necessary investments in health care, child care spending and other government programs they say will help working-class Americans.

Here's where the candidates stand on economic policy based on their statements, voting records and answers to a questionnaire that was sent to every campaign.