I was surprised to see the claim that Sen. Schumer’s announced agenda, dubbed a “Better Deal”, was intended to remind us of Donald Trump’s book The Art of of the Deal. From a marketing standpoint it would seem to me that would be the last thing you’d want to do. I also found the idea that it was a reference to Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” agenda.
I thought it was an evocation of Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. Maybe it’s all three.
Or a floor wax and a dessert topping.
Johnson wanted to call his initiative a “Better Deal” and was persuaded to use “Great Society”.
Better Deal sounds milquetoast and souless enough to be exactly what Democratic Party technocrats would come up with as they also thought “I’m with her” and “America is already great” were swell.
Prediction: no one will show up to vote for this and the left will tear it apart for being utterly useless.
Nothing is more demonstrated to be a failure than job training programs incentivized by tax credits.
How can you say that? They’re a tremendous success for the organizations that get the grants to do the training. And they don’t even need to train people for jobs that actually exist. Those organizations can be expected to mobilize support for politicians that will vote for such programs.
I’m not remotely “the Left” but I think Schumer’s Better Deal is utterly useless. I actually sympathize with the Democrats’ plight. It’s hard to be the party of Wall Street and the party of Main Street at the same time now that the financial economy has become so completely separated from the real economy.
The technocrats who run the party have all grown up in an environment in which increasing professionalization was seen as the path to victory. That’s what makes the Democratic way of politics so expensive these days. What we’ve learned is that it’s a flop.
I profess to be confused, Paul Ryan’s agenda is unpopular, as the health care bill with its focus on cutting Medicaid has shown. It was to be followed by a tax cut whose primary feature, a mash between a VAT and a tariff, is already DOA. Why would Schumer want to associate Democrats with that plan?
I think Schumer is just trying to check a box here. With Trump trying to push his own AG out, he doesn’t realize he is signing his own impeachment bill. Republicans in Congress and in his cabinet are getting very vocal that Sessions stepping down is a red line but yet he persists. The ensuing figurative war between R’s will be insane.
At that, Schumer just waits to break up the pieces.
May I suggest an alternative:
“Make the Great Society Great Again.” Put it on rainbow trucker hats.
Seriously though, this appears to be more of the same. There are a ton of contradictions with the Democrats (and the GoP as well), but fundamentally, how can they be the party of government and technocracy against this headwind? They still seem uninterested in good governance.
I think “better living through political consultancy” would be closer to the mark.