Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor asks: "Why is Hillary Clinton Stooping so Low?"

Robert Reich, Secretary of labor for Bill Clinton Administration
Why is Hillary Stooping so Low?
Posted December 3rd, 2007

I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the stridency and inaccuracy of charges in Iowa -- especially coming from my old friend. While I'm as hard-boiled as they come about what's said in campaigns, I just don't think Dems should stoop to this. First, HRC attacked O's plan for keep Social Security solvent. Social Security doesn't need a whole lot to keep it going -- it's in far better shape than Medicare -- but everyone who's looked at it agrees it will need bolstering (I was a trustee of the Social Security Trust Fund 10 years ago, and I can vouch for this). Obama wants to do it by lifting the cap on the percent of income subject to Social Security payroll taxes, which strikes me as sensible. That cap is now close to $98,000 (it's indexed), and the result is highly regressive. (Bill Gates satisfies his yearly Social Security obligations a few minutes past midnight on January 1 every year.) The cap doesn't have to be lifted all that much to keep Social Security solvent -- maybe to $115,00. That's a progressive solution to the problem. HRC wants to refer Social Security to a commission. That's avoiding the issue, and it's irresponsible: a commission will likely call either for raising the retirement age (that's what Greenspan's Social Security commission came up with in the 1980s) or increasing the payroll tax on all Americans. So when HRC charges that Obama's plan would "raise taxes" and her plan wouldn't, she's simply not telling the truth.

I'm equally concerned about her attack on his health care plan. She says his would insure fewer people than hers. I've compared the two plans in detail. Both of them are big advances over what we have now. But in my view Obama's would insure more people, not fewer, than HRC's. That's because Obama's puts more money up front and contains sufficient subsidies to insure everyone who's likely to need help -- including all children and young adults up to 25 years old. Hers requires that everyone insure themselves. Yet we know from experience with mandated auto insurance -- and we're learning from what's happening in Massachusetts where health insurance is now being mandated -- that mandates still leave out a lot of people at the lower end who can't afford to insure themselves even when they're required to do so. HRC doesn't indicate how she'd enforce her mandate, and I can't find enough money in HRC's plan to help all those who won't be able to afford to buy it. I'm also impressed by the up-front investments in information technology in O's plan, and the reinsurance mechanism for coping with the costs of catastrophic illness. HRC is far less specific on both counts. In short: They're both advances, but O's is the better of the two. HRC has no grounds for alleging that O's would leave out 15 million people.

Yesterday, HRC suggested O lacks courage. "There's a big difference between our courage and our convictions, what we believe and what we're willing to fight for," she told reporters in Iowa, saying Iowa voters will have a choice "between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who's walked the walk." Then asked whether she intended to raise questions about O's character, she said: "It's beginning to look a lot like that."

I just don't get it. If there's anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it's Barack Obama. HRC's campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything. Her pollster, Mark Penn, has advised her to take no bold positions and continuously seek the political center, which is exactly what she's been doing.

All is fair in love, war, and politics. But this series of slurs doesn't serve HRC well. It will turn off voters in Iowa, as in the rest of the country. If she's worried her polls are dropping, this is not the way to build them back up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-is-hrc-stooping-so-lo_b_75191.html

Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written eleven books, including The Work of Nations,

"Her pollster, Mark Penn, has advised her to take no bold positions and continuously seek the political center, which is exactly what she's been doing." this is her problem and i do not understand why she is listening to them. i think she is a very smart woman that if she used her instincts she`d do a lot better.if she can`t judge what these people are doing to her campaign how is she going to judge her staff if she gains the presidency?

He's her Karl Rove. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

...except, of course, that Rove was ideologically committed to the principles of his party (bad principles, but that's beside the point) and sought to make those principles the permanent agenda of the country. Penn, OTOH, advises his clients to run from the principles of their party as fast as possible (in favor of a bland "centrism" that is basically pre-Reagan Republicanism), and seeks to gain his clients victory at the expense of his party's principles.

Oh, there's one other difference. Rove has won two presidential elections in a row, despite being saddled with a dim-bulb client. What has Penn's track record been over the past eight years?

Okay, maybe I should have said Mark Penn's is her wannabee Karl Rove. ;-)

penn has damaged her campaign so far and iowa has become a disaster. the question planting gave obama the youth vote in iowa and obama`s legal use of the caucus rules has left penn all pissed off that he did`t use it first. if these mistakes are not stopped she`s going back to new york.

Thanks for this edifying article from a legendary public servant. :toast:

Thanks for posting.