There's a twofold reason that the Republican Party has so willingly lied about, obstructed, and sought to repeal the progress of the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats. First, Republicans don't have a positive agenda of their own so they're making hay by attacking "Obamacare" and the "Obama-Pelosi agenda". But second, Republicans know that by undermining and turning back the legislative achievements of the Democrats, they can also delay the economic recovery long enough to turn voter sentiment against the Democrats.
Brad Delong has a great post up with a 7-point plan to restore economic confidence. With a solid whack to the shins of Robert Rubin (Delong thinks Rubin makes no sense and sounds too scared), he suggests key steps to turn the page on the partisanship and move forward. The full plan is worth a read, but after the jump, I want to talk about Point Number 7.
Certainty: The principal sources of uncertainty in American economics right now are three: we don't know how the long-run fiscal gap will be closed (but we think it will be), we don't know how our health-care system will be reformed and transformed (but we know it will be), and we don't know what our policy toward global warming will be in a generation (but we know that we will have one). The best things the government could do to diminish uncertainty would be to: (1) commit immediately to the full implementation of the version of RomneyCare-plus-cuts-in-Medicare-and-taxes-on-gold-plated-health-plans that was this year's PPACA, (2) commit immediately to a long-run climate policy in the form of a carbon tax coupled with research incentives for future energy technologies, and (3) commit immediately to a plan to cover the long-term fiscal gap.
I think Delong has so thoroughly nailed it that we need to stop everything else we're doing and just get this done.
Want to create jobs? Create a favorable climate for job creation.
Stop the chest-thumping, stop the ideological Clash of the Titans, and give investors and businesses a clear sense of direction.
The PPACA will not be repealed, and it should not be. Period. For all the rants about legal challenges to mandates and the other associated window-dressing, the PPACA will stay in place. Allowing something additional, like a Medicare buy-in for those ages 55-64, wouldn't change the fundamental direction that the PPACA is headed. Shared responsibility, support for small businesses and individuals, an Exchange to create choice and competition, and a more tightly regulated insurance industry to end some of the abusive cost increases. Phase it in over the next 6 years, and let the thing play out.
The desire to fight yesterday's battles is something that progressives should fastidiously avoid. Republican temper tantrums aside, the American people have already come to terms with the PPACA, and the more they know about it, the more they like it. Rather than trying to argue about mandates or bargain for a public option, it's time to move forward with selling the plan, especially to seniors who are scared to death about Medicare "cuts". (They only people who will have Medicare "cut" are providers and hospitals, who will recoup those losses in the form of the insurance mandates and shifts in payments that are too complicated for normal people to understand.)
We need to end our addiction to foreign oil, and we need to stop polluting the environment with carbon that is screwing up our climate. The way to end the addiction is by making new, smart, clean energy investments and the way to do that is by using long-term approaches like the one suggested by Delong. A carbon tax makes sense and those who think it doesn't should be run out of town on a rail. They are irresponsible, dishonest, dirty, ugly, vile, inhumane, selfish, arrogant, outrageous failures who put short-term gain ahead of the concerns for our nation's future.
Democrats win on this if we just stop demagogue-ing and purity trolling. And Scott Brown, Mark Kirk, Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe, and Joe Lieberman will have to deliver results or lose their seats. We hold the upper hand on this, especially in a Presidential election year.
The long-term fiscal issue is a tougher one, especially if we lose the forest for the trees. Yes, Social Security is a sacred trust. But so is the environment and its climate, and if private accounts could be used, short-term, to end our addiction to oil, then we kill not two but three birds with one stone. We protect Social Security for the younger generation, make important future investments in green energy technology, and improve our trade imbalance.