Robert Reich: Ask candidates about wealth gap

DES MOINES - Robert Reich is one of the few national figures visiting Iowa these days who is not running for president.

But Reich does hope his visit will influence the discussions between Iowa voters and the parade of White House hopefuls pouring into the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, will deliver the keynote address Saturday at the Working Families Summit in Ames. Reich's address is titled 'Making America Work for the Many, Not the Few.”

'I like to think of myself as a possible consultant or adviser to Iowa citizens, because the people of Iowa have a uniquely important role to play in presidential politics,” Reich said during a phone interview from California, where he is a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley. 'Most of us will not even see a presidential candidate. … Iowans are going to have a chance to actually see these candidates up close. It means the questions you ask of those candidates and what those candidates' answer are critically important.” 'I'm traveling to Iowa because I want to give you an idea of what those questions ought to be.”

Reich said he will encourage Iowa voters to press candidates about income and wealth gaps, concentrated assets and the amount of money being poured into elections.

Reich said those issues have caused Americans to believe they are living in 'an economy and a political system that are no longer working for the majority.”

'The question is, what do we do about it,” Reich said. Reich said a perfect example is the Wall Street banks. Reich, who is big on data - he used it extensively in his 2013 documentary film, 'Inequality for All” - said that in 1990, the five largest U.S. banks possessed roughly 10 percent of the nation's total banking assets, and now, the five largest banks possess almost 45 percent of total assets.

'That's not healthy for the economy,” Reich said. 'Not only are they too big to fail, they're even far bigger than they were in 2008 (before the economic downturn). That degree of financial capital is dangerous for any economy and puts too much power in the hands of too few banks.”

Reich said candidates should tell voters whether they support the Dodd-Frank Act that added regulations to banks or resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment from commercial banking.

'The American economy is still being treated by the big banks as if it were the casino,” Reich said. 'Where do the candidates stand on this? Are they concerned? Are they willing to bust up the big banks Are they willing to resurrect Glass-Steagall?”

The Working Families Summit, which is sold out, will feature speakers and work sessions on topics such as wages, immigration, health care and education.

'It's all about issues that affect working families,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa, one of the roughly dozen organizations that collaborated to host the event. 'A lot of times, we think about raising the minimum wage or just a few select issues, but there are a whole host of issues that impact the strength of our families. So this day is meant to help people and get them organized.”