Krugman Labels Obama ‘Less Progressive’
14 January 2008 4:21 pm by Taylor Marsh
We only have to wonder if it will make a dent. I’ve made the case for a very
long time that Mr. Obama is not a progressive. That’s been my point all along.
Others have chimed in as well on policy, with Paul Krugman coming down with
an indictment on Obama’s "stimulus" that, one would hope, would wake
people up. We simply cannot all be wrong.
Last week Hillary Clinton offered a broadly similar but somewhat larger proposal.
(It also includes aid to families having trouble paying heating bills, which
seems like a clever way to put cash in the hands of people likely to spend
it.) The Edwards and Clinton proposals both contain provisions for bigger
stimulus if the economy worsens.And you have to say that Mrs. Clinton seems comfortable with and knowledgeable
about economic policy. I’m sure the Hillary-haters will find some reason
that’s a bad thing, but there’s something to be said for presidents
who know what they’re talking about.The Obama campaign’s initial response to the latest wave of
bad economic news was, I’m sorry to say, disreputable: Mr.
Obama’s top economic adviser claimed that the long-term tax-cut plan
the candidate announced months ago is just what we need to keep the slump
from “morphing into a drastic decline in consumer spending.” Hmm:
claiming that the candidate is all-seeing, and that a tax cut originally proposed
for other reasons is also a recession-fighting measure — doesn’t
that sound familiar?Anyway, on Sunday Mr. Obama came out with a real stimulus plan. As
was the case with his health care plan, which fell short of universal coverage,
his stimulus proposal is similar to those of the other Democratic candidates,
but tilted to the right.For example, the Obama plan appears to contain none of the alternative energy
initiatives that are in both the Edwards and Clinton proposals, and emphasizes
across-the-board tax cuts over both aid to the hardest-hit families and help
for state and local governments. I know that Mr. Obama’s supporters
hate to hear this, but he really is less progressive than his rivals on matters
of domestic policy. … ..
