Bold Progressive Ideas: New Proposals for American Challenges

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The upcoming election is “our opportunity to present a new vision of ambition and scope to the nation that addresses the great challenges of our times, from the threats of Islamist terror and global warming, to the transformations of the global economy and the aging Baby Boom,” said Kenneth Baer, co-editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, at a Center for American Progress event Thursday. The event, moderated by Baer, featured a morning panel of experts who discussed their domestic policy ideas for a new progressive agenda that tackles the specific challenges that America faces today.

Lael Brainard, vice president and director of global economy and development at the Brookings Institution, proposed a “new economic safety net.” The economy has undergone vast changes over the last seven years, “exposing American workers to the bracing winds of global competition and technological advance as never before,” said Brainard. The United States therefore needs a comprehensive economic security program to aid U.S. workers during the unemployment process.

The program would be built around three main pillars: “Making sure workers and communities have the tools to re-skill themselves; providing health insurance for periods of unemployment; and offering insurance against big drops in income and loss of health care as they transition back into employment.” Brainard added that the program would address the nation’s job-sector safety net, which remains very weak among advancing economies.

Another idea, put forth by Jason Bordoff, policy director of The Hamilton Project, is “Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance.” Insurance costs under this plan would vary by the amount of miles driven. This would incentivize driving less, “thus decreasing the harm that more miles have on society,” said Bordoff. The communal benefits of Pay-As-You-Drive would be approximately “$30 billion per year, mostly from reduced car accidents and congestion, as well as reduced local pollution,” and carbon emissions plus increased oil security.

Unlike frequently proposed policies such as gas taxes and congestion charges that shoot up the cost of driving, Pay-As-You-Drive represents a “win-win policy—good for society and good for most drivers—that makes significant progress on climate change …while reducing insurance costs for the majority of drivers,” said Bordoff.

Shirley Sagawa, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress, shared her plan for strengthening the nonprofit sector. “Non-profit sectors are America’s best hope for solving the pressing problems facing its communities,” she said. Yet too many non-profit organizations have all the passion, and none of the resources and strategy. “There is no help for struggling non-profits,” said Sagawa. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides critical training in technology implementation, which is something “non-profits could use both internally and in serving clients.”

Sagawa explained, “A ‘nonprofit SBA’ could support a national volunteer reserve list of AmeriCorps alumni and other skilled Americans ready to help when needed.” It could also provide financial support that would, “enable nonprofits to rebuild or scale up quickly after a crisis.”

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