The Daily Background

This is truly weird:

Reporters on the trail with Sen. Hillary Clinton are reporting that she has dropped her “baby bond” idea, the notion that the federal government would give each baby at birth $5,000 to be used later for college or to help purchase a first home.

Clinton, the front runner in national and many state polls among Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, caught a lot of flak from former Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and others for the idea, which her campaign is saying was only a concept, not a policy position.

I think I speak for everyone when I say “What the hell?!”

Seriously, this makes about zero sense. First, she makes the bold announcement that she would give every American child a $5,000 savings bond at birth, which would mature when they turn 18 and could be used for college tuition or as part of a downpayment on a home.

I mean, whether it’s a concept or a policy proposal, it’s a pretty bold idea. And people were taking it seriously as an idea– her detractors were attacking it and her backers were backing it (oddly enough, the conservative Elizabeth Hasslebeck of The View was among the proposal’s backers– see above video– although for a ridiculous reason that I picked apart here). The only weirdness about it came from this:

On the topic of “baby bonds,” Ben Smith guesses that it’s possible Hillary meant to say the bonds would be worth $500, but accidentally said $5,000 and is sticking to the mistake. It’s an interesting theory, since earlier proposed versions of the plan were worth only $500.

Is that what happened? Did she accidentally add an extra zero when she announced it and doesn’t want to endorse a plan that would cost ten times as much as she originally planned but she can’t make a mistake, so now she says she’s changed her mind about the whole thing? I mean, if we’re to believe what her boosters would claim, she simply changed her mind about the merit of the idea in the span of a few days.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog