Obama’s Middle Class
Like Clinton’s, Obama’s package of middle class benefits is small potatoes. But now that does matter. They’re all worthwhile ideas but they pale relative to the size and scale of the challenge America’s middle class is now facing.
Obama can no longer afford to come up with lists of nice things to do. At the least, he’s got to do two very big and important things: (1) Enact a second stimulus. It should mainly focus on bailing out state and local governments that are now cutting services and raising taxes, and squeezing the middle class. This would be the best way to reinvigorate the economy quickly. (2) Help distressed homeowners by allowing them to include their mortgage debt in personal bankruptcy — which will give them far more bargaining leverage with morgage lenders. (Wall Street hates this.)
Granted, getting 60 votes for these two initiatives will be hard. But they’re fights worth taking on.
Obama can no longer come up with a list of things to do so here’s a list of things for Obama to do, the difference being that Robert Reich said he should do them.
