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Hillary Clinton spending more time on economy

BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com

9:53 PM EST, January 16, 2008

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., takes a question during a media availability in Las Vegas, Nev., Wednesday. (AP Photo / January 16, 2008)

LAS VEGAS - Back in the 1990s, an embattled Bill Clinton fixated on incremental reforms -- the smaller the better -- churning out poll-tested, small-bore programs like putting parental control "V" chips in TVs and school uniforms on inner-city schoolkids.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has billed her 2008 campaign as a return to those halcyon days, but her supersized approach to problem-solving couldn't be more different than her husband's comparative timidity in the late 1990s.

"At our first meeting on health care reform at her house in D.C., she told us, 'We're not going to go through this whole process unless we're planning big things,'" recalled Gene Sperling, a central member of both Clintons' economic policy teams.

"I think it's unfair to say Bill Clinton didn't accomplish big changes, but the hard reality was that in the late 1990s, with the Republican Congress he wasn't able to make more progress," he added. "But her experience and her confidence and the political climate allows her to take this approach."

In the past year, Clinton has proposed domestic programs that would cost about $800 billion during her first four-year term, including plans dealing with the subprime mortgage crisis, health care and energy independence.

Last week, she unveiled an ambitious $70 billion economic stimulus package, but bad economic data in recent days now make it likely Clinton will add a provisional second part of her plan, $40 billion in emergency tax relief, Sperling said.

Clinton, aides say, will spend most of the two weeks leading up to the Super-Duper Tuesday primary Feb. 5 talking about economic issues. They parried off-message questions yesterday with the comment, "We're talking about the economy today."

About $440 billion of Clinton's wish-list is taken up by her ambitious universal health care proposal, followed by a $100 billion proposal to give all Americans access to 401(k) retirement accounts and $20 billion to provide pre-K to all 4-year-olds. Last year, Clinton introduced -- then withdrew -- a controversial plan to provide a $5,000 "Baby Bond" to every newborn.

She says she'll pay for all this by rolling back Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 and by ending the war in Iraq. She offers no such offsets for the stimulus package, arguing that it will pay for itself through increased tax receipts once the economy revives.

"This election is about change," said Dana Chasin, a senior adviser with the nonpartisan fiscal watchdog OMB Watch. "You get credibility if you are running on the claim of fundamental change if you have a detailed program to go with it ... But you've got to be specific about how you're going to pay for it. Voters don't want sticker shock."

Clinton's approach has opened her up to scathing criticism from Republicans, who claim she's a hypocrite for proposing costly programs while claiming she's the most fiscally responsible Democrat in the race.

The Republican National Committee has begun to keep a Clinton "Spend-O-Meter" to tally the cost of her proposals.

"How can you claim to be fiscally responsible and want to increase the federal budget by $800 billion in four short years?" former Bush political adviser Karl Rove asked yesterday during a speech in Washington. "She says, 'I have a million ideas and the country can't afford them all.' For once I agree with Senator Clinton."

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Clinton said, "I don't expect him to agree with me ... I have put forth very specific ways that I wold pay for everything I've proposed."

Later, at an afternoon meeting with working-class voters in Reno, Clinton listened as plant manager Valerie Franklin explained how her joy over being offered health insurance for the first time by her employer soured when she learned she'd have to pay a $3,000 deductible.

"I used to be middle class," said Franklin. "I don't what I am anymore."