The New York Times (register)

For many Democrats, the coming election promises not just the hope of a presidential victory, but the realistic prospect of entering 2009 in control of both Congress and the White House in the same way when Bill Clinton assumed office in 1993.

That was a long time ago, when the economy was in a far different condition than it is today. But in some ways the early debate among Democratic economic policy mavens is already breaking along similar lines.

“The last time Democrats really had a vibrant debate about what kind of economic policy we should have was in 1993,” said Andrei Cherney, founder and co-editor of “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.” “But now the question is whether the right answer in 1993 is still the right answer for 2009. And that’s an issue we can’t wait until 2009 to confront.”

In 1993, within the Clinton administration, Robert E. Rubin, then the White House domestic policy coordinator, led a camp that argued that the highest priority, even as the economy was still struggling to gain traction, should be to cut the deficit by raising taxes and keeping spending under control. On the other side was a group led by Robert Reich, who, as Labor Secretary, pushed for an aggressive domestic spending program to spur the economy built around public investment in infrastructure and jobs programs.