Sanders's Fed agenda cuts against the narrative of a campaign agenda at odds with wonks' preoccupations and political reality. It could use a little more polish and consultation with a wider range of experts, but it's certainly more detailed and substantive than anything Hillary Clinton (or, for that matter, Barack Obama) has said on the subject. It's also realistic — based largely on things that can be achieved through executive authority.
But even though it's boring, making appointments to the Federal Reserve Board is one of the most consequential powers a president has — especially in a time of gridlock. Failure to pay adequate attention to this issue is the number one domestic policy error of the Obama administration, and it would be an enormous shame for the next president to repeat it. Sanders is giving strong indication that he wouldn't, while Clinton's silence raises the alarming possibility that she would.
Read the whole thing.
Now, if you’re a Sanders supporter, I imagine you’re liking what you are reading.
Ezra Klein, who is widely perceived to be in the tank for Hillary (or at least I have been frequently told that in comment threads here on Kos ), liked it so much he tweeted this article out this morning, which is how I came upon it:
So if you are liking what you are reading above, you might want to revisit Matt Yglesias’ article of last week about Bernie’s healthcare plan
Or maybe Ezra Klein’s piece about the lack of seriousness in Bernie’s plan for single-payer (which Yglesias clearly drew on heavily in his piece on Bernie’s healthcare plan)
Or maybe you just assume that Klein and Yglesias are SELL-OUTS and SHILLS and ESTABLISHMENTARIANS when they challenge Bernie, but they are SPOT ON when they agree with him. Pundits with Multiple Personality Disorder. Or they are just being their version of “fair and balanced”: they are LYING when they criticize Bernie, but they are BRAVE TRUTHTELLERS when they support him.
In which case you might want to take a long look in the mirror.
A really long look.
Especially if you have been piling on to poor Brainwrap. And Paul Krugman.
I am a Hillary supporter. Unlike most Hillary supporters, I didn’t think last night was Clinton’s finest hour. I thought she was trying too hard, and sometimes condescending, and didn’t make me proud to be a supporter.
That’s ok. I can admit that. There are other forums where I have liked her more. I imagine she feels frightened and hurt by the throngs of young Bernie supporters, and was overcompensating. And I have seen her do better in other forums. And being charismatic on television is not the only talent involved in being President.
I admit she has weaknesses. Sometimes I am ambivalent. But all things considered, I still think, with Ej Dionne and many others, that she has been a tireless civil servant and a powerful advocate in many areas, and will make a better President than Bernie. But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about.
Bernie is an impressive candidate in many ways. But the way that he has presented his healthcare plan, which would involve a TOTAL TRANSFORMATION of one sector of American life, and would touch EVERY CITIZEN, EVERY DOCTOR, EVERY NURSE, EVERY HOSPITAL, EVERY DRUG MANUFACTURER, EVERY DEVICE MANUFACTURER. and many other entities, has been utterly cavalier and irresponsible. Last night he talked about taking on the insurance companies and the drug companies, easy punching bags, but he has failed to talk about the fact that there is NO WAY he can achieve the savings he claims without doctors and hospitals taking significant haircuts. (Medicare pays doctors 80% of the market rate, FYI. Lots of American doctors currently don’t take Medicare because the reimbursement rate is too low. And under his plan, most doctors will be working ONLY for Medicare. SOME will be able to be paid through private insurance, but the more that do that, the less savings are achieved, and the more the bargaining power of the government is diminished.) He has yet to talk about how decisions will be made about which treatments will be paid for and which won’t. He has yet to discuss how he will assure access to care if hospitals are forced to close because they can’t operate in Manhattan or San Francisco charging only Medicare rates. If he was going to argue for this total transformation, it was incumbent upon him to make an ironclad, truly credible case for it, especially given the recent failure of single-payer in Vermont, which will be brought up time and again as the media vets him and his plans.
His candidacy has been an extraordinary success story, and he came out half-cocked for a fight that he decided to have. And this is why I don’t trust him as an executive. You want to do something huge, something truly transformative? Come ready, or go home. Don’t let a major progressive dream like single-payer become an implementation laughingstock and a rightwing punching bag for a generation.
I hope Hillary’s people read Yglesias’ article and get on top of the Fed issue. It’s important, and she needs to deal with it. If she doesn’t, I will be bitterly disappointed.
Neither candidate can afford to be showing up with knives for gunfights.