How Progressive Is the 'Pro-Growth Progressive'?

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted January 17, 2006.

Reading Gene Sperling's "The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity" ignited a battle between the opposing factions that inform my worldview.

I have an inner tinkerer -- call him the Swedish Centrist -- who believes that working within the existing system can bring broader prosperity to millions of poor Americans. The Swede believes that pragmatic, technocratic policy adjustments can address middle and lower class pain.

I also have within me a Radical Reformer -- a voice whispering that the system as we know it is beyond repair, that too much power and wealth are concentrated in too few hands to hope that a just economy is possible without a sea-shift in our political culture and economic arrangements.

"The Pro-Growth Progressive" thrilled the Swedish Centrist in me, and left the Radical Reformer hitting his head against the wall in abject frustration. Because while the book, on one level, is a simplified, largely jargon-free book of wonk -- progressive economics for dummies -- it is also an illustration of the disconnect between the leftover Clinton establishment in Washington and the millions of real people struggling to make ends meet under the legacy of its policies.

Sperling, whom Bill Clinton called the "MVP" of his economic team, is certainly a part of that establishment. But he also has a track record that progressives can't ignore. While there's much to criticize about the Clinton era, when he said that in a fair economy "the rich should get richer and the poor should get richer too," he followed that up with policies that produced results.

As Sperling happily notes, Clinton oversaw an eight-year respite from the assault on working families' wages. Between 1979 and 1993, the top 20 percent of earners saw their incomes increase by 28.4 percent, while the bottom fifth of the income spread saw theirs drop by 13 percent. But under Clinton, "Those in the bottom fifth saw the largest income growth of 22.5 percent." African Americans enjoyed the highest income growth at 33 percent. By the late 1990s, poverty among blacks and Hispanics was at its lowest point in the history of the republic.

That was due in no small part to smart progressive policies like the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, a program that's pumped $100 billion in wage benefits to working families since its passage and keeps 5 million Americans above the poverty line. As an insider's insider, Sperling guides the reader through the twists and turns of getting the EITC past GOP opposition. (Much of the book is a behind-the-scenes peek at the fights, the victories and the missed opportunities in Bill Clinton's go-go 1990s economy.)

Sperling talks about the increasing difficulties two-earner families have juggling child raising and career, and notes that the burden falls disproportionately on women and the poor: "Mothers are often prevented from moving up to the varsity level after taking time off or reducing their hours to raise children."

"Many workers lack even the most basic protections like sick leave or the flexibility to attend a parent-teacher conference," he adds. "Seventy-six percent of low-wage workers have no paid sick leave, and 41 percent have no paid leave of any kind."

Sperling proposes a range of policies under his "Work Family Balancing Act," including a $3,000 fully refundable "newborn leave" tax credit to allow new parents the flexibility to take time off to bond with their babies, expanding the number of workers who are eligible for family leave and establishing universal pre- and after-school programs.

He also cautions that the United States is at risk of losing its competitive edge, and calls for more technology infrastructure, a renewed commitment to education and a reversal of the Bush administration's cuts to basic research funding. "Over the past two decades," Sperling writes, "the share of workers with at least a college degree grew by 50 percent; over the next two decades it will grow by only 4 percent."

Sperling points out that the United States, having started the digital revolution, has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband access, and asks: "Why should we ever lose even a single American job because there is better broadband in Bangalore than in Buffalo?"

Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.

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