2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Why doesn't the Clinton camp and Democratic Party elites attack [View all]kenfrequed
(7,865 posts)Mostly in how things are paid for and in the differences between structural change versus embroidering around the existing structure.
Bernie wants a higher minimum wage at $15 an hour on the federal level. Hillary has been a lot less specific on this score. Hillary wants a bonus sharing plan that would refund a company at half the rate of bomuses they offer in some kind of tax incentive up to a certain total rate.
Bernie wants all public colleges to be tuition free. Hillary wants a complicated program that doesn't specifically lock the banks out of they system, states that families should have to pay something for the education, has an unspecified work program, and seems to be more interested in tax credits.
Bernie wants single payer universal healthcare as a right for all and Hillary wants to eliminate the "Accord tax" (I refuse to call it a Cadillac tax). I will give Hillary a tiny amount of credit on this score, but it is clear where the vision is on this score.
All of these differences illustrate serious and substantive differences between their policies. Hillary's plans sound like the 90's never ended. The problem with tax incentives is that they are far more easily removed later on down the road. A tax credit rarely has a serious constituency that will take to the streets like changing Social Security or eliminating 12th grade high school might.
From a negotiating stance starting where she is will result in something 3/4 closer to where the republicans are on an issue which in most case is nothing.
But the real problem is how strong the vision is in these changes and the desperation in trying to sound sort of populist while trying to appease her massive list of donors at the same time. No one really imagines that she is actually against the TPP or the Keystone pipeline but the way she makes noises about these will convince reporters not to bring them up which will diminish their position in the public consciousness.