Can the Democrats Think Big?
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[The] Democrats' task is to place the responsibility squarely where it belongs—on market-fundamentalist ideology and the related right-wing policies that have undercut mechanisms of security and opportunity—and to offer something dramatically better. This requires not just a repudiation of George W. Bush but a reversal of an entire philosophy of how to run an economy. That philosophy has now been revealed as a proven, practical failure both for working Americans and for the solvency of the system.

Repairing America's broken infrastructure will cost public money. Financing green energy and creating good jobs along the way will cost public money. Converting the low-wage jobs in the human service sector into good middle-class professional jobs will cost public money. Disconnecting health security and retirement securities from the vagaries of employment will cost public money. And improving the economic horizons of young Americans will require serious public outlays, too. ...

And finding the revenue to finance that social outlay will require reviving progressive taxation.

Reverting to the tax schedule of the pre-Bush code, but preserving the lower taxes on Americans with incomes under $200,000, could easily raise an additional $300 billion a year.

Reversing the catastrophic damage to the financial system and its tendency to generate dangerous asset bubbles will require New Deal–scale re-regulation. Reversing the 30-year trajectory of increasing inequality and insecurity will require very substantial public spending. It's time for Democrats to stop flinching at both ideas...