Last week there was much talk, at least among pitiful political maniacs, like us, about the national Democratic Party and its lurch to the port side of politics. After the debates Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the question was: Have the moderates made a comeback?
For a few months, all the news seemed to be about the rising tide of the so-called progressive presidential candidates and their spending plans. Elizabeth Warren, the Dolores Umbridge of the group, wants to hand out free college degrees and cancel student loan debt for those already out of school. Beto O'Rourke, the Gilderoy Lockhart of the group, wants $5 trillion to fight climate change. And Marianne Williamson, the Sybill Trelawney of the group, wants $500 billion in taxpayer money spent on reparations.
Bernie Sanders wants free college and Medicare for all. Julian Castro wants $1.5 trillion spent on free pre-K and college tuition. And about half the candidates have said they support the Green New Deal, which would cost upwards of $95 trillion.
Ninety-five. Trillion. Dollars.
So you might think there'd be a little room on the right for candidates who might see that kind of spending as unseemly. Or at least impolitic. And you heard a few of them during the debates.
Such as John Delaney: "Folks, we have a choice. We can go down the road that Senator Sanders and Senator Warren want to take us, which is with bad policies like Medicare for All, free everything, and impossible promises that will turn off independent voters and get Trump re-elected. That's what happened with McGovern. That's what happened with Mondale. That's what happened with Dukakis. Or we can nominate someone with new ideas to create universal health care for every American with choice, someone who wants to unify our country and grow the economy and create jobs everywhere. And then we win the White House."
John Delaney wasn't alone. Other candidates, more moderate candidates, have said these free-for-all proposals (in more way than one) will hurt the party, if not the country.
But how moderate is moderate in today's Democratic Party?
According to The Hill, Joe Biden's plan to take on climate change will cost $5 trillion over 10 years. The former vice president--considered, even mocked as, a moderate in his own party--said he'd rejoin the Paris climate agreement, which would only affect the United States and not affect climate. And he'd want this country to get to zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. No matter how much choking fumes China and India pump into the air. And you, Dear Taxpayer, would fund all of it. To the tune of nearly one-quarter of this nation's entire existing national debt. Some moderate.
Before she joined the United States Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand was a Blue Dog Democrat in the U.S. House. She was known as a conservative Democrat, back when such creatures roamed the land. Now that she's running for president, she wants to spend $10 trillion on climate change. But she also wants to spend nearly $800 billion on a Family Bill of Rights, whatever that is. If CBS News and archives are to be believed, she proposes universal Pre-K, paid family leave, subsidies for child care and something about "leveling the playing field" for all families. Which sounds like Senatespeak for spending a ton of tax money.
The aforementioned John Delaney, who's made his name by being the "moderate" Democrat on stage, only wants to spend $4 trillion fighting global warming.
Not to be outdone (by much) Michael Bennet wants to spend a trillion dollars on climate change, too. Tim Ryan wants to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure. And this Andrew Yang character wants to spend $30 trillion over 10 years for a universal basic income.
Some of us are old enough to remember when editorial writers who wanted to emphasize the enormity of government spending would say Billion-with-a-B. We're going to have to get in the habit of writing Trillion-with-a-T.
Poor John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, was upbraided during the debates for not thinking big enough. According to our friends at The Washington Free Beacon, he just wants to spend $30 billion on rural America and fighting the opioids disaster, and a few hundred billion here and there on climate change. That kind of money is a rounding error in the other proposals.
Call this defining moderates down. If Joe Biden can be a moderate with a $5 trillion climate plan on the table, and John Delaney can be called a moderate with a $4 trillion plan of his own, and only once was the national debt brought up in last week's debates--and only by John Hickenlooper--then what's a moderate anymore?
And another question, while we're at it:
Mike Ross, where have you gone?
Editorial on 08/04/2019