Elizabeth Warren — United States Senator, Democratic presidential candidate, fake Indian, fake victim of pregnancy discrimination — recently counseled billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman via Twitter: “Leon, you were able to succeed because of the opportunities this country gave you. Now why don’t you pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream, too?”
Warren was responding to Cooperman’s dissent from the substance of Warren’s “plan” for a wealth tax and attitude toward economic success. Politico had quoted Cooperman conceding his “belie[f] in a progressive income tax and the rich paying more.” There Cooperman’s agreement ended: “[T]his is the f****** American dream she is s******* on.”
Cooperman has now responded in an open letter to Warren. The letter was originally obtained by CNBC and made available in its story on it. I have posted it below.
Like many of us at lower levels of financial achievement, Cooperman resents the condescending tone that makes Warren such a repellent candidate: “You proceeded to admonish me (as if a parent chiding an ungrateful child) to ‘pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream.’”
Cooperman’s letter makes for a good introduction to issues with which all Americans should be familiar. Unfortunately, however, one cannot get a handle on them from the New York Times story on the exchange between Cooperman and Warren or other such coverage.
Cooperman concedes more ground to Warren than I would. Even so, his letter can serve a useful purpose. It is honest, it is knowledgeable, and it is on point. Here, for example, is a confession that the Democrat media is unlikely to home in on: “I am on record as having said that I don’t mind working six months of the year for the government and six months for myself, paying an effective combined rate of 50% on my income….”
The implicit question raised by such a confession is the magnitude of the “fair share” Warren purports to demand from “the rich.” That is one question to which we will never get a forthright answer from Warren and her ilk.
Cooperman Letter by Scott Johnson on Scribd
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