There's a smart op-ed piece in the Times by Robert Rubin—yes, that Robert Rubin—calling for a massive federal jobs program at decent wages. Rubin correctly points out that most people need good jobs, and that the vogue for a Universal Basic Income doesn’t solve that, and is very expensive.
What prevents us from having a jobs program at a scale that would make a real difference? One factor is the Democratic Party's obsession with deficit reduction and budget balance as necessary tokens of fiscal virtue. That theme ran through both the Clinton and Obama administrations.
And the leading Democratic proponent of that view, along with his Republican Wall Street cronies like Pete Peterson, was the same Robert Rubin.
Now that the good jobs desert has brought us Trump, it's nice that Rubin is having new thoughts. And tactically, it's useful that Rubin now supports a massive federal outlay on jobs. But hypocrite and opportunist are among the kinder words to describe this man.
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