Reformicons take II; A new Republican agenda?

[Admin]

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.

1. Eliminate payroll taxes for the first $30,000 of wages.
    
   
2. More robust wage subsidies.
    
   
3. Vouchers (refundable tax credits) to pay for health insurance.
    
   
4. Wage insurance.
    
   
5. Cash child benefits (refundable tax credits).
    
   
6. Relocation assistance for workers in distressed areas.
    
   
7. Vouchers to pay for job training and education.
    
   
8. Industrial policy aimed at attracting manufacturing jobs.
    
   
9. Harsher immigration laws, especially for low skilled immigrants.
   

In broad strokes, there are four ideas here. 

• 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.

[Admin]

Interesting, a new policy agenda for the Republicans to suck some wind out of the sales of youknowwho..

The Republicans used to be the party of small government, strong defense and conservative moral values, but much of that has degenerated into dogma containing tax cuts for the rich and deregulation (to appease the donor class), disastrous interventionism abroad and supporting values that are increasingly out of tune with a growing US majority.

Trump has broken the mold, as he isn't necessarily a small government guy and his anti-immigration, anti-Muslin and and anti-globalization stance is popular with the white working class. 

After Obama's election, reformist in the party tried to broaden its appeal with minorities, but Trump has moved the party backwards with this and probably already has done irreparable damage here. 

Another approach would be to have the party's economic agenda actually reflect more the interests of the working and middle classes, that is, less atavistic and dogmatically tuned against government and in favor of big tax cuts for the rich relying on trickle-down economics which we know doesn't work.

So there seems to be such efforts underway, but unlikely to be successful.

[Martin K]

Unlikely to be successful? Haha. You think that the Republicans suddenly morph into a reasonable party taking the economic interests of their voters seriously?

That really is funny..

This is the party that shut down the government and threatened a US default, the party full of climate and evolution deniers and people who believe Obama is born somewhere else and isn't a legitimate president, etc. etc.