We're all familiar with the case Kerry is building against Bush on National Security with his team that includes Rand Beers, Gen. William Perry and Gary Hart. But, Kerry has also been working on an economic plan to hit the ground running in Jan. 2005.
__________________
by Josh Benson
John Kerry’s economic tutors rate him highly as a student, but admit that the Massachusetts Senator’s message still needs work.
For several months, Mr. Kerry has been coming to New York on a monthly basis not just to raise money, but to talk about it. He has assembled a high-powered team of advisers who he hopes can help him in forming an economic agenda for the 2004 campaign. The meetings, which are organized by financier Roger Altman, have included Gene Sperling and Laura Tyson, both chief economic advisers in the Clinton administration, and investment banker Felix Rohatyn.
Though each campaign consults with experts and informal advisers, participants in the Kerry meetings say that the candidate has, to a greater extent than his rivals, formalized his tutorial discussions. He has presided over regular corporate-style meetings to discuss developments and to plan for the days and weeks ahead. And participants say that Mr. Kerry has been the most aggressive of any of the Democratic candidates in seeking their advice.
"We’d like to see a Democrat win the election," said Alan Blinder, a professor of economics at Princeton University, who has not endorsed any candidate but was approached by Mr. Kerry. "And since Kerry is the one who’s asking, we’re prepared to help."
The general idea of the meetings has been not only to teach Mr. Kerry about the intricacies of making economic policy on the Presidential level, but to help in tailoring his oratory and policy prescriptions to changing events as the race progresses.
But the meetings also serve the function of projecting an image of seriousness on economic issues, which will be at or near the top of voters’ list of priorities going into the elections next year. This is not lost on Mr. Kerry’s campaign officials, who have suggested that his economic advisory group is "Clintonesque" because of the similarities it bears to the groups of smart-people-of-substance convened by former President Clinton before his election in 1992. Nor is the importance of that imagery lost upon the participants themselves.
"What’s exceptional about this is that the other candidates, for the most part, are focused on fund-raising and politics, and Kerry’s got this group of bright lights together to focus on policy," said one of the participants who is a Kerry supporter. "There’s nothing else like this that I know of."
http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=7681More on Kerry and the economy:
John Kerry plans to hold a series of discussions over the next several weeks on the economy. He will talk to Americans at diners, union halls, living rooms and at places of employment. Kerry will listen to ideas from workers around the country and develop a comprehensive plan to restore the economy and create new jobs.
Kerry has made it a goal to restore the more than two million jobs lost in the Bush economy in the first 500 days of his Presidency. He will focus on:
• Expanding Efforts to Train and Retrain Workers.
• Ending Policies That Starve States and Cause Them to Layoff Workers and Raise Taxes.
• Making Investments in Homeland Security, Infrastructure, and Transportation.
• Replacing the Current College Savings Programs and Tax Credits with a Financing Plan that Means Every Student Can Afford to Attend College.
• Assuring That Every Worker Gets the Unemployment Insurance.
• Helping Employer and Employees Alike By Stopping the Spiraling Health Care Costs.
• Helping America’s Small Businesses Become an Engine of Growth to Create New Jobs.
• Bolstering Parts of the Country Particularly Hard Hit By the Bush Economy.
• Reducing Dependence on Foreign Oil and Creating New Jobs With a Bold New Energy Policy.
• Ending the Fiscal Recklessness of the Bush Administration.
• Cutting Reckless Government Spending and Closing Corporate Loopholes.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
