Despite their differences, President-elect Donald Trump's administration and congressional Democrats see eye-to-eye on one big issue that would also boost good-paying American jobs, writes liberal columnist Brent Budowsky.
Writing at The Hill, Budowsky notes that Senate Minority Leader-elect Chuck Schumer could end up working with Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon on an effort to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure because it meets both sides' agendas.
"On jobs, in principle, one thing that Trump, Bannon and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other progressives share is to think big and act boldly," writes Budowsky, a former aide to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. "The project to rebuild America could be the deal of the century.
"The bigger the jobs program, the better; the more jobs created by the jobs program, the better," he said. "These are American jobs, with high wages, that would serve the nation well."
Budowsky said he still fears a Trump presidency could turn out to be a "dark day in the history of the nation." But he said Trump is far from a traditional Republican on many issues, including infrastructure and job creation.
Trump's proposed $1 trillion infrastructure is even more ambitious as Democrat Hillary Clinton backed, he notes. "And within Trump circles, one of the most fierce advocates of a massive jobs program is Steve Bannon!"
Bannon has been slammed by the left as a leader of the alt-right and a racist and anti-Semite. Bannon has denied such charges, and even some of his detractors on the left, including Harvard Law School's Alan Dershowitz, have said he is not anti-Semitic.
"However much we progressives may vehemently disagree with Bannon on a long list of issues and attitudes, the potential for a unique area of agreement on a massive jobs program should be explored by all progressives and Democrats," Budowsky argued.
Traditional Republicans may reject Trump's infrastructure plans, so he would need Democrats to help him pass it, he said.
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