Jeff Madrick (one of the panelists here at TBA) sez:
Jefferson was an activist! He bought Louisiana! How much more aggressive of a land policy could you have than that?
Fair question. Madrick is taking aim at the mainstream of the economics profession, suggesting that far from serving as an impediment to growth, government intervention is an utterly central component of robust expansion. The arguments are fairly similar to those you regularly read on this site -- it's not that government is bad, but that bad government is bad, just as bad companies are, and we need good government, just as we need good companies.
To move in that direction, Madrick argues that the GAO should begin scoring the returns -- increased tax revenues, growth, decreased crime, etc -- from social investment, just as Republicans get them to score increases in growth from tax cuts. Let the data stand on its own -- preschool programs versus tax cuts. And to be clear: I like those odds. And anyone who's following the data on preschool programs will too.