Calls out Obama

Sen. Warren calls out Obama for not being tougher on corporations

By POLITICO Staff

Elizabeth Warren is scolding President Barack Obama for failing to aggressively enforce laws against big corporations and their executives, and is urging the presidential candidates to start talking about it more.

The Massachusetts senator, whose populist screeds against Wall Street excess have vaulted her into a folk hero, penned an op-ed in the New York Times that lays into Obama — albeit not by name — for focusing on new agency rules and executive actions while not rolling out an equally assertive enforcement agenda.

"The administration’s record on enforcement falls short — and federal enforcement of laws that already exist has received far too little attention on the campaign trail," said Warren, who flirted with a presidential run before deciding to stay on the sidelines this cycle. "In a single year, in case after case, across many sectors of the economy, federal agencies caught big companies breaking the law — defrauding taxpayers, covering up deadly safety problems, even precipitating the financial collapse in 2008 — and let them off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist. Often, companies paid meager fines, which some will try to write off as a tax deduction."

Warren did call out certain corporations by name, faulting the administration for delivering light punishments to Education Management Corp, a for-profit college; drug company Novartis; JPMorgan Chase; and Massey Energy, despite a range of misdeeds.

And while she did give certain agencies credit for a more aggressive posture (include the Environmental Protection Agency and her former employer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), Warren said other government organizations have fallen short, namely the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But Warren said, ultimately, the buck stops at the top. "Presidents don’t control most day-to-day enforcement decisions, but they do nominate the heads of all the agencies, and these choices make all the difference," said wrote.