Wage Insurance to Help the Middle Class

The big debate going forward will be over means and not ends. The President would redistribute incomes through changes in the income tax code, while upgrading the skills of both young people and older workers seeking career improvement by making two years of community college free. Republicans have not yet settled on a single counter-approach – how could they be expected to, there are many of them in Congress and they don’t control the Executive branch – but they clearly will oppose redistribution. Instead, Republicans are inclined to favor an “opportunity” agenda that is likely to contain multiple ideas: more school choice, consolidating multiple federal antipoverty programs into single funding streams or block grants to the states, tax reform that lowers individual and corporate tax rates, and possibly some form of wage subsidies.