01.26.07

The Agenda Part 1: Economy Wars

Posted in General at 8:25 pm by JTinDC

You may not be able to tell from just looking at them on TV, but the Democratic Party is divided, perhaps harshly divided, into two separate warring camps. . . .

EPI, the Economic Policy Institute, is the leading economic think tank in Washington DC. But this lofty position isn’t necessarily attained by their ability to out think other brainstormers. They are politically aligned to have a major impact on the American economic landscape.

You may not be able to tell from just looking at them on TV, but the Democratic Party is divided, perhaps harshly divided, into two separate warring camps. We’re not talking about the Iraq War–the ones who voted for it and the ones who didn’t. No, that’s a completely different topic. This is an economic ideology war. And the idea guys have been in a pitch battle for decades. And while most of the country is focused on the battle for Baghdad, the victors of the past election will be trying to slip policy changes on Health Care and Globalization into congressional bills.

Many people think the country has had it with the GOP and are looking to get back to the good old days of Clinton’s economic policies. But if you asked some of the people at EPI, they’d say Clinton was a part of the Reagan economy. After all, he gave us NAFTA. Didn’t it seem funny that at the time, all the Republicans thought it was a great idea? Hmmmm.

Now, however, the upper hand is given to the Neopopulists. Recently, Hillary Clinton, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had Mr. Robert Rubin, the architect of President Clinton’s economic policies, to a meeting of the Democratic Party Officials. It didn’t go well for Mr. Rubin. He is seen by the Neopopulists, who align themselves with organized labor and have gained politically through the election, as having hallowed out the middle class.

The Neopopulists like Sen. John Edwards. So listen in the coming run on the White House for two lines of economic policies. On one side, you’ll have Hillary following in her husband’s footstep with Mr. Rubin and his “Rubinomic” ideas, flowing from his think tank called the Hamilton Project. On the other side, you’ll have Sen. John Edwards talking up neopopulists ideas coming straight from EPI.

The other rising political powerhouse to watch is Senator James Webb, Democratic Senator from Virginia and former Secretary of the Navy. You may have caught his strong performance during the Democrats rebuttal to the State of the Union address. He also spoke via fiber connection at the EPI news conference of the Agenda for Shared Prosperity.

He spoke of class war and the divide that is growing between the wealthy and the middle class. “The growing divide along class lines isn’t good for anyone, including the rich.” He called for economic populism, fairness to the people doing the hard work of our society. And a square deal, one that’s fair for all. He made mention of the wage stagnation, a popular song sung by Neopopulists, and the growing costs of education while the first jobs out of college pay less with less benefits.

On the other hand, the economic policies of the 90’s gave more money to the wealthy. The top 1% now makes 400 times more than the average worker that’s up from 250 times. “The internationalization of corporate America means we’re not all in this together,” Webb said. “We need a level playing field with workers all over the world.”

A representative from the steel worker’s union got up and said, “Yeah, we’re in a class war, problem is only one side has been armed.”

But the larger question is whose policies will rise to the top of the Democratic Party’s agenda.