03-13-2016, 01:53 AM
The Emerging Center-Right Policy Agenda
Posted by Matt Bruenig on March 3, 2016
In response to Donald Trump's success in the GOP primary, a few conservatives have offered up new policy ideas for a new moderate conservative agenda (Henry Olsen and James C. Capretta in Real Clear Policy and Reihan Salam in Slate). Here is a run down of every proposal I've seen so far.
As a practical political matter, the main problem with this agenda is that it's mostly acceptable to the center-left, specifically the moderate redistribution targeted at the working class and the ALMPs. The only thing that the Democrats may stand out on is especially harsh immigration policy. In a more conventional political environment, you could see a Right party that was based on these kinds a policies and a Left party based on an expansive universalist social democratic platform.
But in the US, there is no party of expansive universalist social democracy, and so a GOP based on these moderate ideas would end up largely indistinguishable from the currently-existing DNC on economic issues.
Posted by Matt Bruenig on March 3, 2016
In response to Donald Trump's success in the GOP primary, a few conservatives have offered up new policy ideas for a new moderate conservative agenda (Henry Olsen and James C. Capretta in Real Clear Policy and Reihan Salam in Slate). Here is a run down of every proposal I've seen so far.
- Eliminate payroll taxes for the first $30,000 of wages.
- More robust wage subsidies.
- Vouchers (refundable tax credits) to pay for health insurance.
- Wage insurance.
- Cash child benefits (refundable tax credits).
- Relocation assistance for workers in distressed areas.
- Vouchers to pay for job training and education.
- Industrial policy aimed at attracting manufacturing jobs.
- Harsher immigration laws, especially for low skilled immigrants.
- The first idea is to redistribute the national income towards the working class by shifting the tax burden up the ladder and providing more transfers (1-5).
- The second idea is to provide more robust active labor market policies (ALMPs) to help workers get into better jobs (6-7).
- The third idea is an active industrial policy to favor higher-paying blue collar work.
- The final idea is to clamp down on immigration.
As a practical political matter, the main problem with this agenda is that it's mostly acceptable to the center-left, specifically the moderate redistribution targeted at the working class and the ALMPs. The only thing that the Democrats may stand out on is especially harsh immigration policy. In a more conventional political environment, you could see a Right party that was based on these kinds a policies and a Left party based on an expansive universalist social democratic platform.
But in the US, there is no party of expansive universalist social democracy, and so a GOP based on these moderate ideas would end up largely indistinguishable from the currently-existing DNC on economic issues.