The American Prospect doesn't speak for the majority of Democrats. But it does voice many concerns of the party's activist base. As you can imagine, they're not fans of Hillary Clinton. Or even of Obama.
For the editors of the American Prospect, the ideal Democratic nominee "would combine the inspirational qualities of an Obama, the professionalism of a Clinton, the compassion for the poor and middle class of an Edwards, and the ideological nerve of a Dennis Kucinich."
There's not much of a chance -- we hope -- that Clinton or Obama will take the magazine's advice on "economic stimulus." After all, the editors are highly critical of a principle that Clinton particularly has been mentioning in recent debates -- "pay-go."
by embracing pay-as-you-go budget rules (no new spending unless offset either by tax increases or other spending cuts), Democrats have denied themselves the ability to offer robust spending measures that might signal practical help. Pay-go rules are the Blue Dog faction's price for backing the leadership. But the leadership would be wiser to support a truly progressive economic program and forget the Blue Dogs.Politics aside, if the next president rejected pay-as-you-go budget rules, and pushed for "robust spending measures," the deficit would explode. That would be crazy, and no responsible Democratic candidate would walk down that road.
But the squabbling within the Democratic Party about budget rules is instructive, if only because we haven't heard anything similar from the Republicans. We've heard lots about taxes, which are certainly an important part of the equation. But low taxes and increasing or even steady spending don't equal financial health.
Without serious commitments in the realm of budget rules, the Republicans risk being as irresponsible as the editors at the American Prospect.
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