department of huh???? sucking up to the Clinton administration veterans

Careerism

AMERICAN CONSERVATISM’S CRISIS OF IDEAS: PROJECT SYNDICATE MONARCHY, PATRIARCHY, ORTHODOXY WEBLOGGING by DeLong

The big difference between the Malthusian conservative critics of social insurance in the early nineteenth century and the Chicago critics of the 1970’s is that the Chicago critics had a point: Providing public support to the “worthy” poor, and then removing it when they began to stand on their own feet, poisoned incentives and was unlikely to lead to good outcomes. 

And so, from 1970 to 2000, a broad coalition of conservatives (who wanted to see the government stop encouraging immorality), centrists (who wanted government money spent effectively), and leftists (who wanted poverty alleviated) removed the “notches” from the social-insurance system. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and even George W. Bush and their supporters created the current system, in which tax rates and eligibility thresholds are not punitive disincentives to enterprise.

Clinton's welfare reform was a dismal failure. As was his deregulatory ideology which allowed an unregulated shadow banking system to arise. Doesn't matter how much incentive there is to work if there's no work to be had.

Ideological Movements Need Accurate Reporting by Yglesias

And I do think there tends to be an asymmetry here. Last night I read a great piece by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella about how prison guard unions often stand in the way of criminal justice reform and about how since the guards are often part of larger umbrella unions such as AFSME or AFGE they can punch above their weight. And I didn't read it in a libertarian magazine where it would be a natural ideological fit; I read it in Mother Jones, whose readers' instincts are going to be cross-pressured.

It's the Third Wayers who need to be cross-pressured. Welfare reform failed. Robert Rubin was a failure. Renominating Greenspan was an epic failure by Clinton. I did like how Clinton blurbed Alan Blinder's new book which is critical of him obliquely. I like how Clinton worked to help re-elect Obama. Politicians can't hold grudges. And finally at the time I failed to realize how hard it was for Clinton to work with a Republican Congress that wasn't inclined to compromise. My bad.