Back to the basics

T he Democratic Party has been criticised by supporters and critics for not having the fortitude lately to stand up for its policies, even its president. That may change with the release of Bill Clinton's Back to Work, a book with the chutzpah that the Democrats have been missing.

Clinton presents a personal, plain-spoken economic picture of where the Americans are, a mile-high view of the three decades that got them there, and how to revive the economy in classic "American Dream growth" style. He challenges Americans and their elected representatives to make hard choices, support innovation and to renew the spirit of cooperation. He gets behind President Obama's jobs plan, criticises Democratic policies when he finds them lacking and, for the most part, supports the recommendations of the wide-ranging bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Yet despite his calls for a positive dialogue, the former president digs in and calls House Republicans "anti-government zealots". This is a fight and there will be blood. "From 1981 to 2009," he writes, "the greatest accomplishment of the anti-government Republicans was not to reduce the size of the federal government but to stop paying for it."

This is a jazzy launch into his discussion of the national debt, a subject that ranges from daunting to dull. As he argued during his own administration, debt is crippling. He demonstrates, in a simple chart, that the classic Republican anti-tax stance has been coupled with economic policies that have loaded up the debt.

A total of $6.1 trillion (Dh23.1 trillion) in debt was acquired during George W. Bush's eight years in office, $1.9 trillion in Ronald Reagan's, $1.5 trillion in George H. W. Bush's four years, $1.4 trillion in Clinton's eight and $2.4 trillion during Obama's administration, much of it trying to pull us out of recession.

Clinton frames the history and issues of big components of the debt, including social security and health care, while making note of challenges such as corporate tax breaks (ExxonMobil made $10.7 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2011 while paying an effective tax rate of 17.6 per cent, lower than the average tax rate of 20.4 per cent for individual Americans).

As much as the debt itself, it is the lack of political will to address it that is sending them into a hole too deep to get out of. The policies endorsed now by "anti-government ideologues", he maintains, are pushing us in that "destructive" direction. So much so that Clinton feels he needs to make a case for government itself, in a chapter titled "Why We Need Government." His list: We need government for security, to provide equal access to opportunity, assistance to those most vulnerable, advancing economic interests at the state and national level, oversight of financial markets, protections where the markets fail, fostering large-scale investments and collecting revenue.

Has the American discourse really reached a point where these things are not self-evident? Apparently it has. Congressional Republicans intent on taking the White House in 2012, Clinton argues, are "convinced that you'll punish (President Obama) for what they do, or don't do, to keep unemployment high, wages low, and poverty rising".

In the second half of the book, he offers programmes and policies that would get America "back in the future business". They go from the macro to the micro, including ideas about improving international trade to supporting green programmes such as the 140,000 LED streetlights being installed in Los Angeles. If the list whiplashes from the nitty-gritty to the mile-high view and back again, it demonstrates that Clinton is a politician who can operate at both levels without breaking a sweat. And a politician he is.

The most interesting thing about this book is not the economic arguments themselves, but that they're being made in one place, in plain language, by Clinton. The former president has blossomed as an elder statesman, standing next to both Bush presidents to support emergency relief, forming his nonpartisan foundation and friendships with powerful players of all stripes. He has stepped out of that role to return to the trenches of partisan politics.

Economists and close political watchers may take issue with parts of the book — the characterisations are broad, he omits his own administration's health care efforts and underplays its role in financial deregulation, his hopes for green technology are rosier than others predict, and very real political influences such as money and lobbyists don't factor into his analysis or prescriptions.

But Clinton himself seems convinced he has put together a coherent economic picture that is honest, persuasive and necessary. "We're in a mess now. At the dawn of the new century, after years of strong job growth, rising incomes, and declining debt, we abandoned a proven path to shared prosperity in favour of doubling down, once more, on anti-government ideology. Now we're paying for it."