Customer Reviews

The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity

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The Pro-Growth Progressive is an outline that promotes the agenda of the liberal movement (now self re-named as Progressive). This outline contains both strategy (to link policy ideas to American values of work, self reliance, fairness, equality of opportunites, etc.) and substance.

Both strategy and substance are well organized and mostly balanced. I tend to overlook the occasional rhetoric and one-sidedness, since it was probably inserted to help maintain the interest of the extreme left. In short: this outline is mostly a re-statement of the Clinton adm. domestic policy goals, with some expanded, some re-worked, and with some interesting new ideas presented here.

The main policies suggested here are:

1. Universal 401(k)with $2-to-$1 matching tax credits on the 1st $2,000 invested (and portability, since ALL americans will be offered this program).
2. Universal Pre-school.
3. Universal after-school.
4. Job re-training programs, and education assistance programs.
5. Maintain Social Security in it's present form (fix it by adding a new 3% tax on all income above $200,000).
6. Reject any/all attempts at protectionist trade policy.
7. Maintain and improve the current progressive tax system.
8. Reverse the Bush Tax cuts (at least on the top 2% and on the reduction of estate taxes).
9. Modest increase in Fed. min. wage (to $7.00 - $7.25 in 2006).
10. Expand/increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.
11. Balance the budget (except in times of recession or other national urgency situation).

While most moderates can agree with most of these policies, at least in principle, the author has presented few estimates of actual costs to taxpayers. This summary of costs should have been included in a final chapter - such final chapter was notably absent. The estimated costs are a necessary component of any serious policy discussion and should have been summarized in table form.

Left to my own rough estimates, it seems that the Progressive agenda presented here would cost:
- reverse the Bush tax cuts
AND
- increase taxes BY TWO TIMES the Bush-tax-cut-reversal-amount to balance the budget, to fully fund SS, Medicare, the Universal 401K, etc.

While the policy objectives presented in this outline are noble and honorable, much elaboration is still needed on each item that would further examine the cost of the income transfers and the benefits to America as a whole.

I did enjoy the author's style and his aggressive and fair debate. (BTW, I am a moderate Republican...) His relentless pursuit of a balanced budget is absolutely correct, and the proposal of Universal 401k is also a policy whose time is right. Finally, his analysis that free trade is good for all Americans proves that he is a Democrat that "gets it". It fact, the author thinks like an economist - understands there are ALWAYS trade-offs and secondary effects, and thereby measures his policy goals by their likely overall consequenses to the US economy. (Hence the "pro-growth" objectives.) The major question left TBD is whether the policy results themselves can provide more contribution to a "virtual cycle" or will the costs of poorly re-distributed capital create an excessive drag on the economy (thus hurting those that such policies are designed to help)?


Republicans better get their act together - strategists like Gene Sperling have an agenda that if follwed by Dem candidates - will probably change the political landscape for a very long time. If Democratic candidates were to follow these guidelines, there could be a new majority in congress in 2006 and the WH in 2008.

Anthony Gibbens' review is superb, and I endorse it and amplify on it. THis book loses one star to two flaws: it begs too many key issues (such as health care, and corporate accountability), and it has no budget and no section on tax reform and increasing government revenue by eliminating fraud, waste, loopholes, and bribery-induced subsidies. That is always my litmus test for serious books about economic policy. One can use the National Budget Simulation, for example, and actually test all these ideas. I, for example, have taken the trouble to identify $550 billion a year in readily available increases in federal tax revenue, and another $300 billion a year in defense and intelligence spending that could be redirected toward soft power and open source intelligence/revitalization of education and national research. It's not real until it's in the budget. This book is platitudinous, worthy of consideration, but not legislatively enactable.

There is no question but that Gene Sperling performed ably for President Clinton EXCEPT that he sacrified the American worker by opening the door for broad indiscriminate lay-offs (see my review of The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences by Louis Uchitelle) and he evidently did not see the economic urgency of completely recasting our national educational system (including exile of the stake-holders in the old system to Chinese re-education camps near Mongolia).

On balance, Sperling is now one of those "has experience, listen to him" guys, but he is part of the last gasp of the old guard in the Democratic party, and for my money, a combination of Return of Rubin and Elevation of Matthew Miller would do more good. See my reviews of the books by both these stars.

The author lacks real familiarity with emergent technologies, especially bio-technologies that are CRTICIAL to reducing poverty and illiteracy (see my review of Tofflers Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives), and over-all the book does not represent a comprehensive strategy that reflects an understanding of system dynamics, both internal to the Republic and globally.

Bottom line: worth reading, 30% of this will be useful, somewhat tired. Rubin is more mature, Miller more innovative. Sperling needs to be in the car, but not driving.