[Leonhardt]: When you and I spoke during the campaign, you made it clear
that you had thought a lot about the economic debates within the Clinton
administration. And you said that you wanted to have a Robert
Rubin type and a Robert Reich type having a vigorous debate in front of you.
...
THE PRESIDENT: ... When I first started having a round table of
economic advisers, and Bob Reich was part of that, and he was sitting across the
table from Bob Rubin and others, what you discovered was that some of the rifts
that had existed back in the Clinton years had really narrowed
drastically.
[Leonhardt:] They agree a lot more than they used to, but not entirely.
THE PRESIDENT: Not entirely. But, I mean, the fact is that Larry
Summers right now is very comfortable making arguments, often quite
passionately, that Bob Reich used to be making when he was in the Clinton White
House. Now Larry might not like me saying that —
[Leonhardt:] Larry Summers is the new Bob Reich —
THE PRESIDENT: — that he’s become a soft touch. But, no, I think that
one of the things that we all agree to is that the touchstone for economic
policy is, does it allow the average American to find good employment and see
their incomes rise; that we can’t just look at things in the aggregate, we do
want to grow the pie, but we want to make sure that prosperity is spread across
the spectrum of regions and occupations and genders and races; and that economic
policy should focus on growing the pie, but it also has to make sure that
everybody has got opportunity in that system.
Excuse me, but Larry Summers cannot be Robert Reich. That's like asking Raum Emmanuel to debate himself and calling it an intense discussion.
Actually, Robert Reich would make a wonderful Robert Reich.
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