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Robert Bernard Reich (pronounced /ˈraɪʃ/; born June 24, 1946) is an American politician, academic, writer, and political commentator. He served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1997. A summa cum laude[1] graduate of Dartmouth College, Reich is a former Harvard University professor and the former Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is currently Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Reich is an occasional political commentator on programs including Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNBC's Kudlow & Company, and Marketplace. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century,[2] and The Wall Street Journal placed him among America's Top Ten Business Thinkers.[3] On November 7, 2008, he was selected by President-elect Barack Obama to be a member of the President-elect's economic transition advisory board.[4] Reich was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he attended John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1968 and winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford.[5] Reich subsequently earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. A longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton (he revealed in his first video blog Vimeo.com on March 7, 2007 that he had a date with Hillary Clinton while in college). He was invited to head Clinton's economic transition team. He later joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), successfully promoted increasing the minimum wage, successfully lobbied to pass the School-to-Work Jobs Act, and launched a number of job training programs. At the same time, he lobbied Clinton to address bigger societal issues, and pushed for improvement of conditions for those in poverty.[citation needed] In addition, Reich used the office as a platform for focusing the nation's attention on the need for American workers to adapt to the new economy. He advocated that the country provide more opportunities for workers to learn more technology, and predicted the shrinkage of the middle class due to a gap between unskilled and highly skilled workers. Reich is 4 feet 10.5 inches (148.6 cm) tall. His height is a result of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, also known as Fairbanks disease. This genetic condition has also affected Reich's hips; he had double hip replacement surgery in 1992.[6] Reich has used his height as a source of humor, once appearing with the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) Conan O'Brien in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[7] In 1996, between Clinton's re-election and second inauguration, Reich decided to leave the department to spend more time with his sons, then in their teen years. He published his experiences working for the Clinton administration in Locked in the Cabinet. After publication of the book, Reich received criticism for embellishing events with invented dialogue. The paperback release of the memoir revised or omitted the inventions.[8] Reich became a professor at Brandeis University, teaching courses for undergraduates as well as in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. In 2003, he was elected the Professor of the Year by the undergraduate student body. In 2002, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He also published an associated campaign book, I'll Be Short. Reich was the first Democratic candidate for a major political office to support same-sex marriage. He also pledged support for abortion rights, and strongly condemned capital punishment. His campaign staff was largely made up of his Brandeis students. Although his campaign had little funding, he surprised many and came in second out of six candidates in the Democratic primary with 25% of the vote. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 Prize, by the former Czech president, for his writings in economics and politics.[9] In 2004, he published Reason, a book on how liberals can forcefully argue for their position in a country increasingly dominated by what he calls "radcons", or radical conservatives. In addition to his professorial role, he is a weekly contributor to the American Public Media public radio program Marketplace, and a regular columnist for the American Prospect, which he co-founded in 1990.[10] He is also a frequent contributor to CNBC's Kudlow & Company and On the Money. In early 2005, there was speculation that Reich would once again seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. He instead endorsed the then-little-known candidacy of Deval Patrick, who had previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration. Patrick won the party's endorsement, a three-way primary with nearly 50% of the vote, and the general election in November 2006. In September 2005 Reich testified against John Roberts at his confirmation hearings for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Two years later his book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life was published. During the 2008 primaries, Reich published an article that was extremely critical of the Clintons, referring to Bill Clinton's attacks on Barack Obama as "ill-tempered and ill-founded," and accusing the Clintons of waging "a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics."[11] On April 18, 2008 Reich endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.[12] On January 23, 2009, CNN host Lou Dobbs characterized earlier remarks by Reich as implying "that race would play a large role in determining who would benefit from the economic stimulus package",[13] airing video of Reich commenting on the package. In the video, Reich said that he was concerned "...that these jobs not simply go to high school people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers. I have nothing against white male construction workers. I'm just saying that there are a lot of other people who have needs as well."[13] Reich disputes Dobbs' characterization of these remarks, saying he meant that women and minorities should have a fair chance of obtaining some of the stimulus jobs, a position that is in full accordance with federal contract law. On April 3, 2009, Reich commented that published U6 employment figures indicate that the United States is in a depression.[14] He currently blogs about politics.[2] In an interview with The New York Times, he explained that "I don't believe in redistribution of wealth for the sake of redistributing wealth. But I am concerned about how we can afford to pay for what we as a nation need to do."[15] In response to a question as to what to recommend to the incoming president regarding a fair and sustainable income and wealth distribution, Reich said, "Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit — a wage supplement for lower-income people, and finance it with a higher marginal income tax on the top five percent. For the longer term, invest in education for lower income communities, starting with early-childhood education and extending all the way up to better access to post-secondary education."[15] |
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