Worsening Economy Gives Obama and Hillary a Chance to Copy Edwards' Populist Ideas

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Worsening Economy Gives Obama and Hillary a Chance to Copy Edwards' Populist Ideas
By William Greider, TheNation.com. Posted January 14, 2008.

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When Goldman Sachs announces recession and the Federal Reserve chairman on the same day promises ready-to-go interest rate cuts, you can take it to the bank: the recession is official. The 2008 campaign's refreshing spirit -- the chorus of "change, change, change" -- is joined by a more traditional theme. "Jobs, jobs, jobs." Suddenly, everyone wants to sound like a Keynesian liberal, ready to prime the pump with federal spending.

My advice to Barack Obama: look through the John Edwards file -- he got there first -- and borrow freely from his sound ideas for economic stimulus. Then double or triple Edwards' numbers to show your sincerity. Do this fast. Hillary Clinton is already out of the box with a plan the New York Times describes as the first from any Democratic candidates.

Wrong. John Edwards was out front with aggressive anti-recession proposals in early December. Act now, he said, don't wait for the official announcement. First, Congress should put up at least $25 billion to stimulate job creation and be ready to spend another $75 billion as things get worse. Spend the money on "clean energy" infrastructure, the housing crisis, reform of unemployment insurance, aid programs to help families get through hard times and other wounds. Get the money out to the folks who will spend it right now and to public works projects that can create new jobs quickly.

Nothing fancy in the Edwards package, just the old-fashioned, meat-and-potato politics that used to make Democrats the party of working people. In the scale of what's happening to the economy, I think his proposals are too modest. Bill Gross, the insightful managing director of PIMCO, the major bond-investment house, has called for virtually doubling the federal deficit in order pump hundreds of billions into new economic activity. When bond holders are more alarmed about the economy than political leaders, you know something is backwards in American politics.

more: http://www.alternet.org/story/73640/

[spooky3]

1. Edwards' ideas as far back as 2003 have been the first out of the box

on many fronts. These are probably still on the web for people to check if they doubt it.

I hate to see any doubling of the federal deficit as proposed by Gross. A huge FINANCIAL benefit of getting out of Iraq sooner rather than later is that the outrageous transfer payments to contractor and the military spending will be reduced, thereby reducing the deficit and getting the economy on much more solid ground.

[fenriswolf]

2. i saw obamas economic plan

he plans on just getting 100 billion dollars and giving it to the people. remember bush's 300 dollars? With obama it will be 500. Now the money is nice but I'm sure we could come up with a better plan then that.

[Armstead]

3. A K&R for Greider

He's been telling it like it is for decades.

More Democrats ought to read him and take his ideas seriously, because he "gets it" in a very fundamental way, backed by detailed knowledge.

[Armstead]

4. Another kick for Greider