http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-madrick/obamas-tragic-campaign-ou_b_120361.html
Obama's Tragic Campaign: Our Last Chance
The Huffington Post
August 21, 2008
Jeff Madrick
John McCain's economic programs are so meaningless and damaging they
require new adjectives. Absurd won't do.
But Barack Obama's campaign is tragically modest. A soft kiss on the
cheek for those in trouble. And it could cost him the election. More to
the point, it will cost America its future.
His diagnosis is not built genuine analysis -- he chooses centrist
economists to provide him research he seems to think objective, even
scientific. Rather, it is built on what is perceived as politically
plausible.
That is how Clinton formed his policies. Even if times are bad and we
are neglecting our assets, only tell the voters what they want to hear.
A little push here, a little push there. But don't worry, the age of big
government is over. Democrats gave us the Democratic Leadership Council
and The Third Way, organizations bankrupt of ideas and guts.
In fact, America is in far deeper trouble than Obama or his advisers
dare to think. It has been living off of past brilliant government,
investment in science, management, manpower, education, its highway
system, and its great water and sanitation systems. It's also been
living off of low oil prices and an unusually and misleadingly high dollar.
Wages have been crummy in America since the 1970s, not only in the
2000s. Educational quality is highly unequal. There is no serious
nationwide pre-k program in a world in which other nations have or will
have one. Americans are no longer getting more schooling on average;
other nations are.
Transportation and healthcare are stunningly inefficient. Respected
observers say the nation has to spend $200 billion a year to repair and
get transportation up to speed. No one is talking about more than $50
billion a year or so.
We spend so much on inefficient healthcare, it leaves little or nothing
for other requirements. It is our biggest problem. As big as anything
the nation has ever faced. It will get worse.
Then there is energy. It is not time for compromise on offshore
drilling. We need big programs.
There are solutions, but not if we don't raise money. What are Obama's
people taking about instead? Modest tax cuts for the middle class! Right
out of the Third Way playbook. It is nonsense, tragic nonsense. It will
backfire.
Americans will put up a little more tax money to solve its serious
problems if they are asked. They are willing to share in the pain. If
they understand such tax money will be spent to make them better off,
relieve their concerns, save their future.
I just can't believe this emphasis of Obama's on minor tax cuts. Now is
the time to be bold and maintain the courage of one's convictions.
Obama seems convinced equanimity is the answer. Cut a compromise. The
problems are too deep and wide. (The same is true in foreign policy.)
Obama's falling behind the curve. The people sense it.
This is not a class room. It is not a mere conversation. It is a battle
for the truth and the future. It may be our last chance.
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