Barney Frank calls for New Deal like policy to get jobs

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56650-2004Mar13.html

One Bold Thinker Among the Democrats By David S. Broder
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page B07


O<snip>Why is this boom leaving so many worse off? Frank's catalogue of causes is a familiar one: globalization and its handmaiden, the outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries; the weakening of unions; the tilt of the tax system in favor of the wealthy investor. And Frank endorses the regular catalogue of remedies urged by Kerry and other mainstream Democrats. They include tougher trade rules, restoration of union organizing and bargaining rights and steps to make the tax system more progressive. Like everyone else, including Bush, he says education, innovation and skills training are the keys to a healthy long-term economic future.

But unlike others, Frank does not stop at that point. Just as he is bold in diagnosing the cause of the problem -- a private economy geared to producing wealth, not jobs -- he is equally daring in his remedies.

Toward the end of his speech, Frank uttered a sentence one can hardly imagine coming from the mouth of a 21st-century American politician. "Our problem today," he said, "is too little government."

When I asked him in an interview Thursday if he was sending a message to Kerry, Frank said, "It's a message for all Democrats. What I'm saying is we're in a situation now where we need the government, and where is it? We've cut taxes, we've criticized bureaucracy, we've almost condemned the public sector. I'm saying it's time to talk positively about government and use it to do what the private economy is no longer doing."

His proposal is to tax some of the wealth the private sector is now producing so abundantly -- "a fairly small percentage," he said, without being specific -- "and use it to employ people on socially useful purposes."

Frank urges that we "take some of the wealth that is being created by this wonderful thing, this increased productivity, this new technology and the ways of using it, and all this innovation, and let us use it for our own undisputed public purposes. Let us give cities and states more money so they can have more people policing, fighting fires, cleaning up the environment, repairing facilities that need to be repaired, enhancing train transportation, building highways, helping construct affordable housing in places where that is a crisis, helping pay for higher education for students."

<snip>

[redqueen]

1. One bold thinker? This is part of DK's platform

oh yeah... I forgot... he's invisible.

:gr:

[papau]

2. I liked DK - and I am Glad Barney has the same policy!

Now to get Kerry to sign on!

:-)

[Catt03]

3. This sounds like something that is worth

discussion.

Can you imagine that someone would actually say the government is good and we need it to help people.....just like the framers of the Constitution planned.

[bemildred]

4. They are working on that, it's called "the draft". nt