The big, gaping hole in the liberal policy arsenal

America's cities are in dire need of affordable housing. And liberal politicians aren't putting forth bold solutions.

Wonkish circles are abuzz with new ideas of late. The reformicons, the band of policy-minded conservatives who are trying to nudge the GOP toward sanity, have had some success in branding themselves as the new policy hotness and got a boost last week with the release of an anti-poverty plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that wasn't completely terrible. Danny Vinik at The New Republic argues that lefties need to follow suit, saying their ideas have grown "stale."

But the problem isn't a lack of ideas — it's crippling political dysfunction. Any lefty could cobble together a strong policy platform by basically copy-and-pasting from FDR, LBJ, and Obama. Here are just a few ideas off the top of my head: immigration reform, an actual climate policy, aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus, beefing up Social Security, jacking up the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, strengthening ObamaCare, prison reform, and ending the drug war. To aim high, we might include a universal basic income, single-payer health care, Federal Reserve reform, surveillance reform, and a mission to Mars. The problem, of course, is passing any of that stuff.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.