Editing Robert Reich (section)

== Tenure as Secretary of Labor ==
[[File:rbreich.jpg|thumb|Reich's official Department of Labor portrait]]
Bill Clinton incorporated Reich's thinking into his 1992 campaign platform, and after Clinton won the election, he appointed Reich to head economic policy for the [[Presidential transition of Bill Clinton|presidential transition]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Friedman |first1=Thomas L. |title=THE TRANSITION: Clinton Selects Diverse Team of Advisers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/13/us/the-transition-the-new-team-1-clinton-selects-diverse-team-of-advisers.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=19 Jul 2022 |date=13 November 1992}}</ref>

Reich joined the administration as [[Secretary of Labor]]. On January 21, his nomination was [[Advice and consent|confirmed]] unanimously and without controversy, along with a slate of Clinton appointees.<ref>{{cite news|title=SENATE VOTES TO CONFIRM ALL BUT TWO OF CLINTON'S CABINET NOMINEES|last1=Dewar|first1=Helen|last2=Weisskopf|first2=Michael|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/01/22/senate-votes-to-confirm-all-but-two-of-clintons-cabinet-nominees/ac9e7754-e911-4bd9-9282-0e8cbdacd239/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=22 Jan 1993|access-date=19 Jul 2022}}</ref>

In the very early days of the administration, Reich was seen as one of the most powerful members of the Clinton cabinet, both for his friendship with the President and his ambitious agenda for the Department of Labor. Reich envisioned Labor as the nucleus of a cluster of agencies, including the departments of Commerce and Education, which could act in tandem to break down traditional bureaucratic barriers.<ref name=1993profile>{{cite news|title=An Idea Man Flexes His Muscle: Labor Secretary Robert Reich is turning his low-profile post into a power base. His close ties to the President have given him a wide-ranging portfolio and clout.|last=Risen|first=James|date=7 Jun 1993|access-date=19 Jul 2022|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-07-mn-598-story.html|newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> Consistent with the 1992 Clinton platform and his writings before taking office, Reich called for more federal spending on jobs training and infrastructure.<ref name=1993profile/>

Reich also took initiative to expand his flexible power as an economic advisor-at-large to the President. As a member of the [[National Economic Council (United States)|National Economic Council]], Reich advised Clinton on health care reform, education policy, welfare reform, national service initiatives, and technology policy, as well as deficit reduction and spending priorities. He also actively engaged independent government agencies, such as the [[Federal Communications Commission]], to take a labor-focused approach to regulation.<ref name=1993profile/> He referred to himself as "secretary of the American work force" and "the central banker of the nation's greatest resource".<ref name=1993profile/>

However, he butted heads with deficit hawks on the administration's economic team,<ref name=1995profile>{{cite news|title=ROBERT REICH: THE RETURN OF A POLICYMAKER|last=Swoboda|first=Frank|date=7 May 1995|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/05/07/robert-reich-the-return-of-a-policymaker/247cbd6e-ebe1-49f1-8a27-77d989f6ba7e/|access-date=19 Jul 2022}}</ref> including budget director [[Leon Panetta]]<ref name=1993profile/> and Federal Reserve chair [[Alan Greenspan]], a holdover from the Reagan administration whom Clinton reappointed.<ref name=memoirreview/> Reducing the deficit was the administration's top economic priority, placing Reich's economic agenda on hold.<ref name=1995profile/> He later credited [[Hillary Clinton]] with keeping him apprised of goings-on within the White House.<ref name=memoirreview/>

During his tenure, he implemented the [[Family and Medical Leave Act]] (FMLA) and successfully lobbied to increase the national [[minimum wage]].<ref name=cnn>{{cite news|url=https://money.cnn.com/1996/08/20/economy/pension_pkg/ | work=CNN Money | title=U.S. minimum wage hike | date=August 20, 1996}}</ref>

===NAFTA===
{{Main|North American Free Trade Agreement}}
Throughout his first year in office, Reich was a leading proponent of the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA), which was negotiated by the [[George H. W. Bush administration]] and supported by Clinton following two side agreements negotiated to satisfy labor and environmental groups. Reich served as leading public and private spokesman for the Clinton administration against organized labor, who continued to oppose the Agreement as a whole.

In July 1993, Reich said that the unions were "just plain wrong" to suggest NAFTA would cause a loss of American employment and predicted that "given the pace of growth of the Mexican automobile market over the next 15 years, I would say that more automobile jobs would be created in the United States than would be lost to Mexico... [T]he American automobile industry will grow substantially, and the net effect will be an increase in automobile jobs." He further argued that trade liberalization following World War II had led to the "biggest increase in jobs and standard of living among the industrialized nations [in] history.
"<ref>{{cite news|title=Reich: Labor 'Plain Wrong' On Nafta|last=Newkirk|first=William|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=14 July 1993|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-07-14-9307140084-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719210106/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-07-14-9307140084-story.html |archive-date=2022-07-19 |access-date=19 July 2022}}</ref>

In a September 1993 to the [[Center for National Policy]] think tank, Reich said, "Great change demands great flexibility -- the capacity to adapt quickly and continuously, to change jobs, change directions, gain new skills. But the sad irony is that massive change on the scale we are now facing may be inviting the opposite reaction: a politics of preservation, grounded in fear." Reich specifically said opposition to NAFTA "has little to do with the agreement and much to do with the pervasive anxieties arising from economic changes that are already affecting Americans."<ref>{{cite news|title=LABOR CHIEF CHASTISES OPPONENTS OF NAFTA|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/09/02/labor-chief-chastises-opponents-of-nafta/cb71e065-932d-4a1d-8196-ceff3b999bd9/|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 1, 1993|access-date=19 Jul 2022|last=Swoboda|first=Frank}}</ref> In October, Reich addressed the biannual [[AFL-CIO]] convention in San Francisco, where [[Economic Policy Institute]] economist Thea Lea mocked Reich's view as a "[[Field of Dreams|field-of-dreams]]" theory of job creation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Unions Gird for War Over Trade Pact|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/04/us/unions-gird-for-war-over-trade-pact.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=4 Oct 1993|last=Kilborn|first=Peter T.|page=A14}}</ref> His remarks were generally well-received, though only briefly mentioning NAFTA; he focused on the Clinton administration's approach to the [[National Labor Relations Board]] and day-to-day business regulation and management-labor relations.<ref>{{cite news|title=REICH NOT BASHFUL WHEN IT COMES TO WOOING BIG LABOR
|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-10-06-9310060004-story.html|date=6 Oct 1993|last=Franklin|first=Stephen|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=19 Jul 2022}}</ref>

In advance of the final vote, Reich personally lobbied members of Congress to support the Agreement.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/10/11/the-tide-seems-to-have-shifted-in-favor-of-nafta/|title=The tide seems to have shifted in favor of NAFTA|date=11 Oct 1993|newspaper=[[The Tampa Bay Times]]|last=Rowen|first=Hobart|quote='But now, there's a big-time effort for NAFTA under way,' says a Democratic congressman who's been wooed by the White House. 'I've talked to the president _ and they get me at home, too. I've had phone calls from [Labor Secretary Robert] Reich, [Commerce Secretary Ron] Brown and others.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=REICH: JOBS PLAN WON'T HELP NAFTA
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/10/21/reich-jobs-plan-wont-help-nafta/3f3dde38-b904-46ec-84e3-42eac9ea82f2/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|last=Swoboda|first=Frank|date=21 Oct 1993|access-date=19 Jul 2022}}</ref> The bill passed the House 234–200 on November 17 and the Senate 61–38 on November 20; President Clinton signed it in to law on December 8.

Over twenty years later, in opposing the [[Trans-Pacific Partnership]] as "NAFTA on steroids", Reich repudiated his position. He further admitted that he regretted "not doing more to strengthen [NAFTA]'s labor and environmental side-agreements", though he denied supporting an expedited "fast-track" legislative process without opportunity for amendment.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/01/29/robert-reich-for-fast-track-before-he-was-against-it/|title=Robert Reich: For 'fast track' before he was against it?|last=Kamen|first=Al|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=29 Jan 2014}}</ref>

===Return to influence (1995–1997)===
{{Main|104th Congress}}
{{See also|1994 United States elections}}
By August 1994, Reich had largely been sidelined on policy by the deficit hawks in the administration. With the approval of the White House, he delivered the first of four major speeches on the emergence of a new "[[economic anxiety|anxious class]]" of Americans concerned with increased [[globalization|global competition]] and technological change.<ref name=1995profile/>

After a disastrous showing for the Democratic Party in the [[1994 United States elections|November 1994 midterm elections]], Reich returned to the forefront of the Clinton economic team.<ref name=1995profile/> Clinton reframed his agenda around a set of Reich proposals: middle-class tax cuts, a boost in the minimum wage, tax deductions for college tuition, federal grants to help workers upgrade their skills, and a ban on [[strikebreaker|strike replacements]].<ref name=1995profile/>

In a speech to the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] shortly after the election, Reich called for cutting corporate subsidies, which he labeled "[[corporate welfare]]", as the only possible means to afford  jobs training programs. In a concession to the new Republican congress, Reich said that many federal job training programs did not work and that there was a need to consolidate programs that work and eliminate those that did not.<ref>{{cite news|title=REICH: CUT 'CORPORATE WELFARE' TOO|date=22 Nov 1994|last=Swoboda|first=Frank|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/11/22/reich-cut-corporate-welfare-too/c96867e7-e9c8-448b-85f4-30a5fbf99cad/|access-date=19 Jul 2022}}</ref><ref name=1995profile/> After the speech, Treasury Secretary [[Lloyd Bentsen]] and Commerce Secretary [[Ron Brown]] attempted to distance the administration from Reich's corporate welfare comments. However, Bentsen soon resigned; Reich continued to attack corporate welfare.<ref name=1995profile/>

In February 1995, Reich met opposition within the administration over his proposal to ban government contractors from permanently replacing striking workers. Clinton sided with Reich, re-establishing his central role in the administration's economic policy.<ref name=1995profile/>

Reich gave weekly speeches attacking the new Republican majority, with his central message being the need to adapt to an [[information economy|"information-based" economy]] and the continued need for job re-training. He said, "We can't get the mass production economy back. The challenge now is of a different kind, and many have found it difficult to adapt. This is a major social transformation." On a Chicago call-in radio show, he said, "You are on a downward escalator. You have a lot of job insecurity because of the tidal wave of corporate downsizing and restructuring."<ref name=1995profile/>

In December 1995, Reich delivered a commencement speech at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]], in which he decried the increasing tendency of wealthy, educated Americans to divide themselves from the general population as "the secession of the successful America".<ref>{{cite news|title=REICH VOICES CONCERN OVER GROWING ECONOMIC ELITISM|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/12/26/reich-voices-concern-over-growing-economic-elitism/e7df1526-2a76-4702-860f-9ba1130f69f6/|last=Swoboda|first=Frank|date=26 Dec 1995|access-date=19 Jul 2022|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

===Resignation and memoir===
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.

By April 1997, he published his experiences working for the Clinton administration in ''Locked in the Cabinet''. Among those he criticized in the tell-all were Clinton advisor [[Dick Morris]], former AFL-CIO head [[Lane Kirkland]], and Federal Reserve Board chairman [[Alan Greenspan]], a leading deficit hawk whom he considered "the most powerful man in the world".<ref name=memoirreview>{{cite news|title=Inside the Beltway but Out of the Loop: Locked in the Cabinet by Robert B. Reich|last=Thomas|first=Evan|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/reich-cabinet.html|date=27 Apr 1997}}</ref> In the book, Reich criticizes the Democratic Party as "owned by" business and Washington as having two real political parties during his tenure: the "Save the Jobs" party, which wanted to maintain the status quo, and the "Let 'Em Drown" party.<ref name=memoirreview/>

After publication of the book, Reich received criticism for embellishing events with invented dialogue which did not match [[C-SPAN]] tapes or official transcripts of meetings.<ref name=memoir>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE2DA173EF937A15751C0A96E958260 | work=The New York Times | title=Now! Read the True (More or Less) Story!; Publishers and Authors Debate the Boundaries Of Nonfiction | first=Doreen | last=Carvajal | date=February 24, 1998 | access-date=May 22, 2010}}</ref> The paperback release of the memoir revised or omitted the inventions. In one story, members of the [[National Association of Manufacturers]] (NAM) confronted Reich with curses and shouts of "Go back to Harvard!" In the revised version of the NAM story, Reich is instead hissed at.  The foreword to the paperback contained an explanation, in which Reich says that "memory is fallible".<ref name=memoir/>

The memoir has since been called "a classic of the pissed-off-secretary genre" by [[Glenn Thrush]].<ref>{{cite news|title=LOCKED IN THE CABINET: The worst job in Barack Obama's Washington|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/locked-in-the-cabinet-099374/|date=Nov 2013|website=Politico|access-date=19 Jul 2022|last=Thrush|first=Glenn}}</ref>