Elizabeth Warren, who is running for the Senate in Massachusetts as a progressive Democrat, has caused controversy between the right and left with the following statement: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. “But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers that the rest of us paid to educate. Part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Speaking at a small gathering at a supporter’s house, Warren also said “My favorite part of looking at this hole, we got in this hole, one billion dollars, uh, one trillion dollars, on tax cuts for the rich under George Bush. We got into this hole two trillion dollars on two wars that were put on a credit card for our children and grandchildren to pay off. And we got into this hole one trillion on a Medicare drug program that was not paid for and was 40 percent more expensive than its needs to be because it was a giveaway to the drug companies. That’s just four trillion right there. So part of the way you fix this problem is don’t do those things! I hear all this, oh this is class warfare, no! You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory. Now look.”

Warren, a Harvard law professor, is leading in polls in Massachusetts. Brown showed no interest in discussing politics on the day when the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling survey showed him behind Warren for the first time in a general election match-up. “There’s going to be plenty of polls. I don’t think about polls. Never been a big poll guy,” Brown said.

The website Behind Blue Lines takes an opposite approach. It notes that “Ah, Professor, have you ever heard of property taxes, excise taxes, income taxes, fuel taxes – and on and on? The entrepreneur pays them too, I can assure you. They pay for the roads, schools, firemen and police – often several times over. And who’s this ‘we’, anyway? Would that be ‘we’ as in know-betters like you? Or would it be ‘we’ in the sense of all the people who pay taxes, including the miscreant who ‘builds a factory’ (and creates valuable products and services benefiting all) and ‘hired workers’ (and paid them taxable wages and benefits). The ‘work the rest of us did’, indeed. What stinks the most about her tirade, however, is the arrogant assumption that we are all state property. That everything we are, including our very selves, belongs to government. I feel obliged to point out that her campaign was forced to admit that she was paid $192,722 for her ‘services’ on the TARP panel.