Pelosi's Plan

Nancy Pelosi gave a major policy address at Georgetown yesterday: Democrats' New Direction Will Restore Economic Security for All Americans.  The FT's reporting on her speech was pretty scathing:

A Democrat-controlled Congress would raise America's minimum wage, redirect tax cuts from the rich to the middle classes and provide them with generous tax breaks for healthcare and tuition, said Nancy Pelosi, the opposition party's leader in the House of Representatives, yesterday.

Ms Pelosi, who would become the next speaker if, as opinion polls suggest, the Democrats take control of the house in the November mid-term congressional elections, presented a populist economic platform that was long on promises but short on strategy.

Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, the Democratic leader, who represents San Francisco on Capitol Hill, said most Americans had suffered income stagnation in the past five years. But she avoided giving a clear diagnosis of why that had happened.  ...

The Democrats would adopt the "pay-go" system in which any spending cuts are automatically balanced by tax increases, and vice versa. In addition, they would reduce interest rates on student loans and "dramatically increase the tax deductibility of college education". They would also push an "innovation agenda" to raise the number of graduates in technical fields such as engineering, science and mathematics.

Ms Pelosi skirted the issue of whether, as is widely expected, the Democrats would permit Mr Bush's tax cuts to be rescinded. Most of the cuts expire in the next few years. But she did spell out a programme for restoring fiscal discipline: "This is our recipe for jobs and growth - making our country more competitive, our economy fairer, college more affordable, healthcare more accessible, our tax code more equitable - all achieved with fiscal discipline."

Was Pelosi's speech as bad a reported?   Let's go take a look...