"AN IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION AGENDA." That's what Speaker Nancy Pelosi told bloggers this morning Congressional Democrats are calling their set of economic proposals on everything from the minimum wage to increasing access to higher education, from affordable housing to developing "green collar" job opportunities. It's a smart tack to offer Americans security from the ups and downs of globalization without using language that vilifies immigration, trade, or internationalism. In fact, it's what the Prospect termed a new progressive populism in our election 2006 recap issue. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) explained, "When America looks at the globalized world, we see an America that’s not prepared. We don’t have a health care system that works in the globalized world. We don’t have a pension system that works in the globalized world. We don’t have a wage system that works in the globalized world." Helping people find decent, affordable places to live is an often-overlooked part of the progressive economic agenda, as are many questions related to land use, the infrastructures of our urban and suburban communities, and our reliance on the automobile. Rep. Barney Frank, the outspoken Massachusetts liberal, told me this morning that under his leadership, the Committee on Financial Services plans to "get the federal government back in the business of providing affordable housing." Frank expects to pass in the fall a bill appropriating an additional $1 billion for affordable housing, and he has the support of both realtors and home builders. This is a great start, but it would be a drop in the bucket, especially considering Bush administration cuts to programs that refurbished run-down housing projects and provided rehabilitative housing for drug addicts. It's almost impossible to imagine, however, the current Congress doing more. As Miller told TAPPED, "You have Republican leadership in the House that’s insisted that every piece of progressive legislation has to beat a filibuster. ...You can send troops to Iraq with a majority, but you have to beat a filibuster to bring them home?" --Dana Goldstein
