Clinton Aide Touts ‘Pro-Growth’ Progressivism

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – As Democrats prepare for 2006 and 2008 by attacking Republicans over Iraq, the Supreme Court, Tom DeLay, I. Lewis Libby, and Hurricane Katrina, a former Clinton administration official is urging Democrats to focus on fixing another party: their own.


In his new book, “The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity,” one of President Clinton’s national economic advisers, Gene Sperling, is encouraging Democrats “to not just be critical of the president’s ownership proposals,” he said in an interview with The New York Sun, “but to come forward with our own wealth-creation and ownership proposals that are better targeted to the working families who are right now not saving and falling through the cracks.”


The message, according to some political observers, could become an important plank for Democrats in the 2008 presidential race, as they seek an affirmative economic vision with broad appeal to improve on their showings in the 2000 and 2004 races, during which Democratic candidates largely defined themselves in opposition to President Bush. Senator Clinton, in particular, would be a likely presidential candidate to trumpet the fiscal centrism of her husband’s former economic adviser, analysts said.


Mr. Sperling’s recommendations call for “progressives” to couple their advocacy for the indigent with a pro-business philosophy, so that they are seen as a party with ideas for all Americans.


“Democrats,” the former Clinton official writes, “cannot just be the party for you when something bad happens.”


Mr. Sperling criticizes many of the president’s proposals, and faults conservatives and libertarians for having too much faith in free markets. Yet he calls for Republicans and Democrats to meet in the middle on several contentious issues, proposing concessions that may rile key elements of the Democratic base.


Mr. Sperling, for example, identifies globalization as an inevitability. Democrats, he writes, are the “Sky is Falling Party,” adding that they “disproportionately blamed outsourcing for job loss while giving the impression that policy could easily restrict market behavior and companies could protect U.S. jobs.” Global competition, Mr. Sperling acknowledges, reduces prices for consumers, and will yield a better educated American work force. Moreover, Mr. Sperling says that technological improvements, not “outsourcing,” are responsible for many of the job losses organized labor and Democrats have pinned on free trade.


This position puts Mr. Sperling, and Democrats who adopt his policies, at odds with core Democratic constituencies such as left-leaning anti-globalization protesters and labor unions, observers said.


Still, Mr. Sperling seeks to wed his pro-free-trade recommendations to policies that provide for poor Americans affected by them. “If there’s a third-way effort to suggest that we in some ways reduce the role of government in interfering with trade and markets,” Mr. Sperling told the Sun, “we should talk about expanding the government in terms of helping more families deal with the severe dislocations from trade and globalization.”


Mr. Sperling also recommends compromises on Social Security and other forms of retirement savings. To make Social Security solvent, the economist asks Republicans to repeal a portion of President Bush’s tax cuts and put the money toward Social Security. Democrats, however, must make concessions on the amount and extent of Social Security’s benefits, Mr. Sperling says.


Mr. Sperling also says more must be done to encourage individual Americans to save in accounts they ultimately control, and proposes “Universal 401(K)” accounts and refundable tax credits to encourage saving among low-income Americans. He also touted his proposed flexible education account, which, he said, allows Americans more freedom to determine when they most need to spend money on education and self-improvement.


“Why not give people the choice?” said Mr. Sperling, 46, who is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, attended the University of Minnesota and Yale Law School, and hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan.


Policies like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit instead of committing to “just keep increasing the minimum wage to $11 an hour” in order to help poor Americans obtain a living wage, Mr. Sperling added, are ways progressives can be pro-business and “empower individuals and reward work as opposed to trying to put more restrictions on employers.”


These compromises, Mr. Sperling said, stem out of a recognition that “we need to break away from ideological debate that sees either less government as automatically pro-growth or believes that we can protect middle-class jobs by just slowing down the pace of change.”


An economist who has observed the political fortunes of pro-growth economic policies since the Reagan era, Donald Luskin, said Mr. Sperling’s policies might have cross-party appeal in 2008, especially among fiscal conservatives and libertarians who admired the Clinton era and are dissatisfied with the Republican party’s social conservatism.


Mr. Luskin cautioned, however, that Democrats often apply the term “pro-growth” to policies that are anything but, such as socialized health care. Moreover, the economist cautioned, Democrats’ adoption of pro-globalization policies would do little good for the economy if they were balanced by tax hikes to provide social benefits for those negatively affected by the increase in free trade. Among Democrats, Mr. Luskin said, “There’s a very strong impulse to do that…and that means you haven’t really globalized.”


Mr. Luskin said that Mrs. Clinton would be the natural candidate in 2008 to campaign on Mr. Sperling’s platform, adding: “No doubt he’d have a position in her campaign, if not her administration.” Mr. Sperling told the Sun that he provides occasional counsel to Mrs. Clinton, but cautioned that “she is her own person and her own thinker.”


The editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, Stuart Rothenberg, mentioned two other moderate Democrats said to be seeking the presidential nomination in 2008, Virginia’s Governor Warner and Senator Bayh, of Indiana, as possible proponents of the Sperling “pro-growth progressive” model.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use