OMFG, SOME DEMOCRATS HAVE BOTH A PLAN AND A POLICY

Robert Rubin, the ex Goldman Sachs exec and Clinton Treasury Secretary who made the trains run on time during the Clinton presidency, has come back from the dead and is leading a Democratic Economic program that has real balls. His main philosophical thrust is that income distribution cannot continue with the disparity that exists right now---high income corporate execs earn 214 times more than their workers---without having the wheels come off the entire capitalist system, a thesis I totally agree with. The new group has launched The Hamilton Project and has some heavyweights from the Democratic Party (not the bomb throwing Soros Brothers), people like Laura Tyson, Roger C. Altman, Jason E. Bordoff, Peter R. Orszag, and Rubin.

It is unfortunate that they are spouting their stuff in acadamiaspeak that nobody can figure out, as is usual with the eliteist Democrats in this country. As reported in the Financial Times and MSN Money,

Citing concerns about the sluggish growth in real median family income, which has grown at just 1 per cent a year since 1973, the paper argues "public policy that benefits a select few will fail to utilize the nation's full potential...Broad-based economic growth is stronger and more sustainable".

We need to address fiscal imbalances, entitlements, low personal savings rates, high debt and the current account deficit. No other developed country in the world has this combination of imbalances."

Rubin says there are a hell of a lot of corporate suits that agree with him but don't want to challenge the Administration. It seems that lots of people who roam at the top are looking at the income spread as a stick of dynamite with the fuse already lit. How far can this go? Well Rubin and friends are free traders and the New Left is protectionist to an extreme, anti-globalization, and against any entitlement reform. So read some stuff and get back to me.

A partial list of heavyweights are behind this set of proposals; starting here. A summation of the entitlement fiasco reads like this

Washington is divided into two camps. One wants to fix the problem by raising taxes, but would never dare say so publicly. The other wants to fix the problem by cutting benefits, but would never dare say so publicly.

Bloomberg on Line has a great overview of everything HERE.

Another conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute, is also on board. Bush's attempt at SS reform went down the tubes so it's not very likely that this package will have a chance.

One other point: show me the place in the Constitution that says one person is entitled to earn 214 times of what another earns. Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness must have an ending. A very few people have pursued, and caught, happiness; too dam many are failing.

Guns are cheap and all the poor own at least one of them. The Freedom to bear arms can have serious consequences when the poor get pissed off.