Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race. Reminder: There are 269 days until the Iowa caucuses and 542 days until the 2020 presidential election.
“Kendrick Castillo will not collect his high school diploma this week because he gave his life trying to protect his classmates from another senseless act of violence in an American school yesterday,” wrote former Vice President Joe Biden. “My heart goes out to his family and all those affected by yesterday's shooting. We must remember Kendrick's name and sacrifice. We must ensure his legacy lives in our shared commitment to stopping these tragedies.
“Heartsick for the victims, their loved ones, and the Highlands Ranch community,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “How many more of our children’s schools must be torn apart by gun violence until Congress does something? We need gun reform. Now.” “Just as a driver’s license demonstrates a person’s eligibility and proficiency to drive a car, a gun license demonstrates that a person is eligible and can meet certain basic safety and training standards necessary to own a gun,” said Booker about the licensing plan, which would almost certainly face legal challenges on Second Amendment grounds were it to pass.
Sen. Kamala Harris had an impressive start to her campaign, raising big dollars and drawing 20,000 to a January launch rally in her hometown of Oakland, Calif. There also seemed to be a path for her both as a high-profile African-American woman running in a party in which African-American women are a key constituency and as a prominent office holder from California, whose primary is on March 3, much earlier than in recent election cycles. But Harris failed to break through.
Here’s how it works. If you have more than $50 million, we’re going to ask you to pay a tax of 2 cents per dollar on every dollar after your fifty-millionth and first. It raises $2.75 trillion over the next ten years — enough to pay for my plans to cancel student loan debt and provide universal free college, fully fund universal childcare, and end the opioid epidemic. And guess what — we’d still have nearly a trillion dollars left over.