Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy by President Bill Clinton

On November 5, 2011, in Book Review, by admin

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President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters—presenting his ideas on restoring energyeconomic growth, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and pursuing a strategy , job creation, and financial responsibility and offering a plan to get us “back in the future business.” He explains how we got into the current economic crisis, and lays down a plan for long-term prosperity. He offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that change changing in the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy while enhancing our national security.

Clinton also stresses that we need a strong private sector and a smart government working together to restore prosperity and progress, demonstrating that whenever we’ve given in to the temptation to blame government for all our problems, we’ve lost our ability to produce sustained economic growth and shared prosperity.commitment to shared prosperity, balanced growth, financial responsibility, and investment for the future. For example, he believes our ability to compete in the twenty-first century is dependent on our willingness to invest in infrastructure: we need faster broadband, a state-of-the-art national electrical grid, modernized water and sewer systems, and the best, airports, trains, roads, and bridges.

Clinton writes, “There is simply no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with an antigovernment strategy,” writes Clinton, based on “a philosophy grounded in ‘you’re on your own’ rather than ‘we’re all in this together.’ ” He believes that conflict between government and the private sector has proved to be good politics but has produced bad policies, giving us a weak economy with not enough jobs, growing income inequality and poverty, and a decline in our competitive position. In the real world, cooperation works much better than conflict, and “Americans need victories in real life.”

“I wrote this book because I love my country and I’m concerned about our future,” writes Bill Clinton. “As I often said when I first ran for President in 1992, America at its core is an idea—the idea that no matter who you are or where you’re from, if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll have the freedom and opportunity to pursue your own dreams and leave your kids a country where they can chase theirs.” In Back to Work, Clinton details how we can get out of the current economic crisis and lay a foundation for long-term prosperity. He offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work and create new businesses, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, and restore our manufacturing base.

He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that change in the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy and enhance our national security. Clinton also says that we need both a strong economy and a smart government working together to restore prosperity and progress. He demonstrates that whenever we’ve given in to the temptation to blame government for our problems, we’ve lost our commitment to shared prosperity, balanced growth, financial responsibility, and investment in the future. That has led our nation into trouble because there are some things we have to do together. For example, he says, “Our ability to compete in the twenty-first century is dependent on our willingness to invest in infrastructure: we need faster broadband, a state-of-the-art national electrical grid, modernized water and sewer systems, and the best airports, trains, roads, and bridges.

“There is no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with an antigovernment strategy,” writes Clinton, “with a philosophy grounded in ‘You’re on your own’ rather than ‘We’re all in this together.’” Clinton believes that conflict between government and the private sector has proved to be remarkably good politics, but it has produced bad policies, giving us a weak economy with few jobs, growing income inequality and poverty, and a decline in our competitive position. In the real world, cooperation works much better than conflict, and “we need victories in the real world.”

Bill Clinton has advice, and some criticism, for President Obama in new book

The Washington Post – November 4, 2011 (Excerpt)

President Obama and his Democratic allies made two key political missteps in recent years, according to former president Bill Clinton in a new book to be released Tuesday.

First was not raising the federal debt ceiling in the first two years of the president’s term, when Democrats still had a majority in Congress, and then failing to devise an effective national campaign message during the midterm elections of 2010.

Clinton also suggests, obliquely, that Obama’s criticism of Wall Street has been too harsh and counterproductive.

The 42nd president periodically surfaces with cheerful tips on how he managed the economy and offers these observations in his book “Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy.”

The Washington Post obtained a copy of the book before its publication.

The volume is dense with criticism of Republicans; it devotes substantial attention to what Clinton describes as the GOP’s relentless “antigovernment ideology,” identified as the cause of the anemic economy, high unemployment and American inability to compete on the world stage.

But the subtext of the book is that Obama has struggled, both to identify workable economic policies and to outmaneuver his Republican foes.

“The Democrats did not counter the national Republican message with one of their own,” Clinton writes of the Democratic losses in 2010. “There was no national advertising campaign to explain and defend what they had done and to compare their agenda for the next two years with the GOP proposals.” He compares it with his own congressional defeats in 1994. [Read the full article...]

Bill Clinton’s ‘Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy’

The Washington Post Book Review – November 4, 2011 (Excerpt)

With the 2012 election a year away, Democrats can latch onto an articulate, reality-based strategy for economic renewal that threads the needle between extremes. But this engaging, center-left manifesto wasn’t written by the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Rather, it was penned by someone who is constitutionally barred from seeking the highest office: former president Bill Clinton.

Clinton burst onto the national scene 20 years ago at a time of national economic self-doubt spurred by high unemployment and fears over a rising power in Asia. Sound familiar? In“Back to Work,” a slim volume packed with ideas on how to fix America’s broken job machine, the Man from Hope offers some well-timed optimism in the face of depressing statistics, such as the fact that the United States ranks 18th in high school graduation rates and 24th in infrastructure quality.

Clintonian to the core, “Back to Work” cribs proposals and anecdotes from all over — from Democrats and Republicans, from the public and private sectors — and includes a lengthy, somewhat windy list of 46 prescriptions. They consist of two parts wonkery and one part down-home common sense. While professors would call the functional difference between a tax credit and a spending increase, as Clinton writes, “a distinction without a difference,” he adds that “when I was growing up in Arkansas, we called it straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.” [Read the full article...]

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