EPI's Agenda for Change
Michael Givel
by WILLIAM GREIDER
TheNation.com February 5, 2007 issue This article can be found on the
web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070205/greider
For many years, the Economic Policy Institute has filled a lonely role
in Washington politics--the premier left-liberal think tank standing up
to the dominant conservative orthodoxy. EPI seldom prevailed in major
policy debates, but it won high regard, even among conservative rivals,
for its meticulous research and powerful analysis of the economic
realities. Now the institute has turned an important corner and is
embracing optimism. It is proposing a comprehensive alternative
vision--an Agenda for Shared Prosperity--to stimulate and guide the
progressive counterreformation.
"Americans are impatient with politics as usual," EPI explains. "They
are prepared to consider big and bold ideas for America's future."
These include dozens of policy proposals for confronting the many
social and economic wounds generated by twenty-five years of
conservative governance. The agenda, to be rolled out in a series of
policy papers (available at http://www.sharedprosperity.org/ ),
includes a concrete strategy for reversing globalization's destructive
impact on equity and general prosperity in American economic life; a
novel proposal to create a new national pension alongside Social
Security, one that will insure secure, ample retirement incomes for
all; and an employer-based system to provide universal health coverage.
Many other reform ideas envision everything from a "family-centered
labor market" to rebuilding the country's decayed infrastructure to
reviving government-backed industrial development.
The healthcare plan in EPI's package is a proposal devised by Jacob
Hacker of Yale that essentially provides Medicare for all--a concept
that already has influential endorsements from Senator Edward Kennedy
and Representative Pete Stark, who chairs the House Ways and Means
subcommittee that will handle the legislation. This would be a big step
toward single-payer, but it doesn't go all the way.
The EPI agenda was generated by fifty or so economists, political
activists and other policy thinkers who collaborated in a series of
sessions through most of 2006. There's a lot to discuss and disagree
about in the various ideas. Do they go too far? Or not far enough? In a
way, that's EPI's point. Given emerging political realities, now is the
time to jump-start serious debate among progressives and put real flesh
on a political agenda that seeks deep reform instead of palliatives.
In other words, EPI is rejecting the mentality that has blanketed the
left for most of the last generation--"nothing can be done" given
Republican dominance, don't make things harder for Democrats by
promoting big liberal ideas that speak to the scale of the problems.
EPI is declaring an end to the retreat and silence. The Democratic
Party is not there yet--not even close--but this new agenda should help
push Democrats out of their center-right timidity. The 2006 election
returns definitely changed the political calculation for them.
In particular, the EPI analysis provides a coherent counter-force to
Rubinomics and the conservative, markets-first ideology by which
Democrats governed under Bill Clinton. Former Treasury Secretary Robert
Rubin is pushing an updated version of his agenda through the Hamilton
Project, which he and other investment bankers created at the Brookings
Institution. Rubin now admits that the laissez-faire economy no longer
benefits most Americans, yet he still doesn't want to change it in any
real way.
EPI's catalogue of policy proposals confronts politicians with a
different choice: Do you want to get serious about solving these deep
injuries to society generated by right-wing governance? Or do you
merely want to make sympathetic noises? This is a good debate for
Democrats--and the country--to have. People haven't heard an
alternative vision articulated confidently for many, many years. A lot
of Americans, especially younger people, may be surprised to learn that
an optimistic agenda exists.
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