Weekend Economists at War! January 10-12, 2014

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35. Obama Anti-Poverty Theme Trickles Down as Republicans Grab Issue

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/obama-anti-poverty-theme-trickles-down-as-republicans-grab-issue.html


President Barack Obama has taken control of the economic debate.

After spending much of the past three years parrying Republican deficit-reduction demands, Obama now has leading members of the opposition party reacting to his policy thrusts.

A 52 percent decline in the federal budget deficit since 2009 has quieted austerity talk and left the traditional Democratic theme of income inequality atop the political agenda. The latest sign: yesterday’s dueling anti-poverty speeches by the president and Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The new Republican focus on ways to promote upward mobility comes after three decades of placing low taxes at the heart of all economic debates, a philosophy Democrats deride as “trickle-down theory.” This week, an economic discussion that Mitt Romney, the Republican 2012 presidential nominee, once said should be confined to “quiet rooms” spilled into public view.