The Professor Schoolmarm Elizabeth Warren Primer On How Republicans Ruined Our Whole Day

Oh, is it Sen. Elizabeth Warren kicks some Republican ass again o'clock already? Why yes it is!

Earlier this week, Warren and fellow Legislative Badass Rep. Elijah Cummings launched their new Middle Class Prosperity Project because they are a couple of actual Democrats who would like to see the middle class prosper (and no, not by doling out corporate tax cuts, that's not how you do it, Rick Perry ).

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Warren kicked off the first in a series of forums on the middle class and how Big Government can do good progressive things to save it before it is too late and the GOP has drowned it forever in a bathtub. Let us swoon, together, at Warren professorsplaining it so nice and sweet and making it so easy for all of us to understand:

For decades after the Great Depression, America built a middle class that was the envy of the world. Everyone shared in our economic growth. From 1935 to 1980, 90 percent of America’s families -- that is, everyone except the top 10 percent -- got 70 percent of all the income growth in that 35 years. It was a formula that worked. As our country got richer, our families got richer. But starting in the 1980s, something changed.

Hmmm, what happened in the 1980s? Oh, right. Everything went to hell. How did that happen?

It happened partly because of deliberate choices made right here in Washington. The choice to tax assembly line workers and teachers at higher rates than billionaire hedge fund managers. The choice to cut support for higher education and leave students with massive debt. The choice to gut funding for infrastructure and basic science research that grows the economy and and saves lives. All while giving corporations fat tax breaks for moving jobs overseas. The choice to run this country for the rich and the powerful instead of running it for hardworking people.

And who did it? Who did this to us? Who made all these bad evil terrible no good choices to hurt America?

Recently Republicans seem to have discovered the struggles of America's middle class. Out of nowhere, they're suddenly talking about this problem. Well that's great, but talk is cheap and when it comes to action, these Republicans seem to have amnesia about what they've actually done to hard-working Americans.

Republican trickle-down policies created tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthy while leaving working families to pick up the pieces. I'll believe Republicans care about what's happening to America's middle class when they stop blocking legislation that would require billionaires to pay taxes at least at the same rate that teachers and firefighters do.

Republican trickle-down economics blocked increases in the minimum wage that would have lifted 14 million people out of poverty. I'll believe that Republicans care about what's happening to America's working families when they stop blocking minimum wage increases and agree that no one, no one in this country should work full time and still live in poverty.

Republican trickle-down economics squeezed billions of dollars of profits out of people who had to borrow money to go to college. I'll believe Republicans care about what's happening to America's future when they agree to refinance student loans.

I could go on, but the point is the same: Talk is cheap. It's time for action -- action that will strengthen America's middle-class families and build a strong future, action that will produce good jobs now and in the future. It is time to put up or shut up.

I have a message for my Republican colleagues: You control Congress. Stop talking about helping the middle class, and start doing it.

Give yourselves a moment alone in your bunk, and then treat yourself to an Elizabeth Warren tee shirt, now available in ladies and not-ladies sizes. You're welcome.