EPI's Agenda for Change

For many years, the Economic Policy Institute has filled a lonely role in Washington politics--the premier left-liberal think tank standing up to the dominant conservative orthodoxy. EPI seldom prevailed in major policy debates, but it won high regard, even among conservative rivals, for its meticulous research and powerful analysis of the economic realities. Now the institute has turned an important corner and is embracing optimism. It is proposing a comprehensive alternative vision--an Agenda for Shared Prosperity--to stimulate and guide the progressive counterreformation.

"Americans are impatient with politics as usual," EPI explains. "They are prepared to consider big and bold ideas for America's future." These include dozens of policy proposals for confronting the many social and economic wounds generated by twenty-five years of conservative governance. The agenda, to be rolled out in a series of policy papers (available at www.sharedprosperity.org), includes a concrete strategy for reversing globalization's destructive impact on equity and general prosperity in American economic life; a novel proposal to create a new national pension alongside Social Security, one that will insure secure, ample retirement incomes for all; and an employer-based system to provide universal health coverage. Many other reform ideas envision everything from a "family-centered labor market" to rebuilding the country's decayed infrastructure to reviving government-backed industrial development.

The healthcare plan in EPI's package is a proposal devised by Jacob Hacker of Yale that essentially provides Medicare for all--a concept that already has influential endorsements from Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Pete Stark, who chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee that will handle the legislation. This would be a big step toward single-payer, but it doesn't go all the way.

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