The timing couldn't be more propitious for the "Green New Deal" espoused by Van Jones. The perfect marriage of Keynesian economics ( the answer in depression), renewed infrastructure, good job creation, and energy solutions. No time to be timid.
Krugman on "the Obama agenda" below.
Question: How do we make it work in WV?
 Jim Sconyers
jim_scon(a)yahoo.com
603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Frank Slider <fslider(a)verizon.net>
To: Undisclosed Recipients <fslider(a)verizon.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2008 11:25:10 AM
Subject: re: The Obama Agenda
 
The Obama Agenda 
 
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: November 7, 2008 
Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of  infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t  stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s  something wrong with you.
Skip to next paragraph 
 
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman 
 
But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of  policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes,  he can.
Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make  the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative  country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say  that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health  care reform.
Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
About the political argument: Anyone who doubts that we’ve had a major  political realignment should look at what’s happened to Congress. After the 2004  election, there were many declarations that we’d entered a long-term, perhaps  permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won  back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50  House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever  achieved in its 12-year reign. 
Bear in mind, also, that this year’s presidential election was a clear  referendum on political philosophies — and the progressive philosophy won.
Maybe the best way to highlight the importance of that fact is to contrast  this year’s campaign with what happened four years ago. In 2004, President Bush  concealed his real agenda. He basically ran as the nation’s defender against gay  married terrorists, leaving even his supporters nonplussed when he announced,  soon after the election was over, that his first priority was Social Security  privatization. That wasn’t what people thought they had been voting for, and the  privatization campaign quickly devolved from juggernaut to farce.
This year, however, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care and  tax breaks for the middle class, paid for with higher taxes on the affluent.  John McCain denounced his opponent as a socialist and a “redistributor,” but  America voted for him anyway. That’s a real mandate.
What about the argument that the economic crisis will make a progressive  agenda unaffordable?
Well, there’s no question that fighting the crisis will cost a lot of money.  Rescuing the financial system will probably require large outlays beyond the  funds already disbursed. And on top of that, we badly need a program of  increased government spending to support output and employment. Could next  year’s federal budget deficit reach $1 trillion? Yes.
But standard textbook economics says that it’s O.K., in fact appropriate, to  run temporary deficits in the face of a depressed economy. Meanwhile, one or two  years of red ink, while it would add modestly to future federal interest  expenses, shouldn’t stand in the way of a health care plan that, even if quickly  enacted into law, probably wouldn’t take effect until 2011. 
Beyond that, the response to the economic crisis is, in itself, a chance to  advance the progressive agenda.
Now, the Obama administration shouldn’t emulate the Bush administration’s  habit of turning anything and everything into an argument for its preferred  policies. (Recession? The economy needs help — let’s cut taxes on rich people!  Recovery? Tax cuts for rich people work — let’s do some more!)
But it would be fair for the new administration to point out how conservative  ideology, the belief that greed is always good, helped create this crisis. What  F.D.R. said in his second inaugural address — “We have always known that  heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics” —  has never rung truer. 
And right now happens to be one of those times when the converse is also  true, and good morals are good economics. Helping the neediest in a time of  crisis, through expanded health and unemployment benefits, is the morally right  thing to do; it’s also a far more effective form of economic stimulus than  cutting the capital gains tax. Providing aid to beleaguered state and local  governments, so that they can sustain essential public services, is important  for those who depend on those services; it’s also a way to avoid job losses and  limit the depth of the economy’s slump. 
So a serious progressive agenda — call it a new New Deal — isn’t just  economically possible, it’s exactly what the economy needs.
The bottom line, then, is that Barack Obama shouldn’t listen to the people  trying to scare him into being a do-nothing president. He has the political  mandate; he has good economics on his side. You might say that the only thing he  has to fear is fear itself. 
More Articles in Opinion  » A version of this article appeared in print on November 7, 2008, on  page A35 of the New York edition. 
Past Coverage
	* ECONOMIC SCENE; Top Priority Is Stabilizing the    Patient (November 6, 2008)
	* A Towering Economic To-Do List for    Obama (November 6, 2008)
	* NEWS ANALYSIS; For Obama, Long-Term Ills and Short-Term    Pain (November 6, 2008)
	* Obama Aides Tamp Down    Expectations (November 6, 2008)