Democrats Want "A Better Deal"

Washington Post writer Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) recently discussed how Democratic leaders are tweaking their electoral strategy with their “A Better Deal” agenda. "A Better Deal" is, I hope, an important development that can be a route back to liberal Democratic power at both the national and state levels.

Yet it seems not to have gained much traction in its first couple of weeks after being introduced. For example, there is, as of August 4, 2017, no Wikipedia entry on it.

The Atlantic's Michelle Cottle calls "A Better Deal" a "kinder, gentler populism" but says Democrats are struggling to sell it.

"A Better Deal" is a platform-in-progress. It has a number of planks, with new planks being added as time goes on. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced the plan in the New York Times on July 24. Among the planks he cited:

1. Policies that will increase people's paychecks. Examples: "creating jobs with a $1 trillion infrastructure plan; increasing workers’ incomes by lifting the minimum wage to $15."
2. Policies to reduce people's everyday expenses. Example: "rules to stop prescription drug price gouging."
3. Providing workers the tools they need to compete in today's economy. Example: "giving employers, particularly small businesses, a large tax credit to train workers for unfilled jobs."

More recently, says Kane, Schumer proposed another plank: "taxes and penalties on corporations that ship jobs overseas." Such policies are obviously designed to, writes Kane, "build an economic identity so that [Democratic] candidates can run next year on something more than just opposition to President Trump."

However, Kane adds, "The pressure point ... is crafting an agenda that balances the needs of energizing anti-Trump liberal activists without driving away centrist voters and Republicans disillusioned with the president and the lack of results coming from the GOP-led Congress."

So true. If the Democrats can't pull independents and centrist Republicans into their column, they can't "take back the night" in 2018 and 2020. Yet the populist planks of "A Better Deal" could alienate a whole slew of supporters on the Democratic left who might see their agendas as falling by the wayside.

A huge question will be how what Cottle calls "the Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders wing" of the party receives the "A Better Deal" plan. She writes, "As for the guts of the plan, many of its proposals carry the imprint of [that] wing: get tough on monopolies, boost the minimum wage to $15; invest $1 trillion in infrastructure; cut the cost of medications, college, and child care."

But I think it's inaccurate to conflate Senator Warren (D-Mass.) with Senator Sanders, and Kane shows why. He says some liberals wanted the drafters of "A Better Deal" to "advocate more generous policies such as the free college proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." Yet, he says, "That proposal, along with Sanders’s push for a national health-care system for all, were left out of the early agenda items."

Sen. Warren walks through the crowd after unveiling the Democratic party's "A Better Deal" for working Americans with members of the party leadership in Berryville, Virginia, July 24, 2017

As I wrote here, "In order to get faster economic growth, we need to do what Senator ... Warren is calling for: breaking up the market 'behemoths' that are prospering greatly at the expense of ordinary Americans of all races, ethnicities, genders, etc." "A Better Deal" seems poised to undertake just that kind of populist agenda.

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Senator Sanders, on the other hand, was conspicuously absent when the Democrats unveiled "A Better Deal," according to this New York Times story, even though "the imprint of his presidential campaign was unmistakably present."

I voted for Sen. Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary in Maryland, and I like much of what he stands for. Yet today I feel that Sen. Warren may have an even better feel than Sanders for what needs to happen to get America moving again.