The pro-growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity

After two consecutive elections in which Democratic candidates failed to turn clear economic advantages into electoral victory, a debate is raging over what the Democrats should donow. The narrow, red state-blue state argument between chest-beating populists and soulless centrists offers the answer to neither the country's economic future nor the political future of the Democrats. In "The Pro-Growth Progressive, " President Clinton's longest-serving national economic advisor, Gene Sperling, argues that the best economic strategy for our nation — and the best strategy for progressives whether they be Democrat, Republican, or Independent — is to pursue policies that are both progressive and pro-growth, that promote progressive values of upward mobility, fair starts, and economic dignity as well as embrace markets and innovation.

Sperling describes how both parties offer the American public impoverished choices: Democrats in the-sky-is-falling party too often pretend that the way to promote progressive values and expand the American middle class is to slow the pace of the global economy, stop all outsourcing, and intervene in the market. Republicans of the don't-worry-be-happy party hold fast to the bankrupt vision that the best thing for economic growth is the smallest government possible, and have made the conservative deficit hawks of the 1990s an endangered species. But "The Pro-Growth Progressive" is neither an all-out assault on the Bush agenda nor a partisan call for Democrats to move further left. Both conservatives and progressives have to accept hard truths about the limitations of their approaches. Drawing on his years of policy experience, Sperling lays out a third way on the issues that are dominating the news and Bush's second term: social security, ownership, globalization, and deficit reduction. He explains the policy alternatives that respect the power of free markets while giving government a role in ensuring that the markets benefit all working families. Focused and timely, "The Pro-Growth Progressive" offers a realistic vision of free enterprise and economic growth in which government can improve education, reduce poverty, and restore the country to fiscal sanity.

"Gene Sperling is thoughtful, hard working, well intentioned and wickedly smart. Reading his book gives me pangs of nostalgia for the days when he and his colleagues ran the country....Is this really the time for statesmanship? Sadly, Democrats may be better off embracing bare-knuckle politics." New York Times

"Where Sperling succeeds is in his condemnation of the Bush administration economic plan, which has been aimless and counterproductive." San Antonio Express-News

"[Sperling] recognizes both the inevitability and the value of globalization but realizes the short-term havoc it can create in particular industries." Booklist

"In the 1990s, Gene Sperling played a pivotal role in America's progressive economic revival, which led to record job growth, higher middle-class wages, and millions of Americans being lifted out of poverty. With this book, he offers a far-reaching but commonsense vision of how to do it again, in a more complex time. For anyone committed to long-term prosperity that benefits all Americans, this book is a must read." President Bill Clinton

Gene Sperling is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He was President Clinton's National Economic Advisor and Director of the National Economic Council from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy National Economic Advisor from 1993 to 1997. Mr. Sperling recently served as a top economic advisor to the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign. He is a columnist and commentator for Bloomberg Business News and a contributing editor for the DLC's Blueprint Magazine, serves as director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council of Foreign Relations, and has been a contributing writer and consultant to the television show The West Wing. He has appeared on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week, Good Morning America, Nightline, and CNN's Late Edition, and is a frequent contributor to NPR. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Inc. magazine, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and others.

Contents

Introduction

PART ONE: The Pro-Growth Progressive

1 Growing Together in the Dynamism Economy

2 Three Progressive Values

PART TWO: A New Compact on Globalization

3 Toward a New Consensus on Trade

4 A New Cost-Sharing Compact

5 Raising Global Boats

PART THREE: A Workforce for the Dynamism Economy

6 A Pro-Growth Model for Rewarding Work

7 The Work-Family Balancing Act

8 Increasing the Labor Pool: A New Role for Colleges

9 Take Universal Preschool Seriously, Please

10 Seeing At-Risk Minority Males as Future Fathers and Workers

11 New Technologies: Tapping the Potential of People with Disabilities

12 Tomorrow's Innovators and Tomorrow's Innovation

PART FOUR: The Nation That Saves Together Grows Together

13 Spreading the Wealth Creation

14 Young Frankenstein Economics: Do Deficits Matter?

15 Lessons in Fiscal Discipline

16 Balancing Fiscal Discipline in the New Supply-Side Reality

17 Generational Responsibility: Savings and Social Security

18 Break a Leg: Should We Save Social Security As We Know It?

19 Toward a Progressive Consensus on Retirement Savings and Wealth Creation

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index