July 25, 2006 9:28AM # The DLC Moves Left? By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE By teaming up with the Democratic Leadership Council, is Hillary Clinton moving to the center in preparation for a presidential run? Or is the DLC moving left to get closer to the front-runner? Yesterday Senator Clinton released a DLC plan, the “American Dream Initiative,” a laundry list of government transfers and handouts. The New York Times [called](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/nyregion/25hillary.html) the programs “modest” and “relatively small-scale.” Taxpayers might have a different view if they [read the Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400172.html), which noted that DLC president Bruce Reed estimated the cost of the programs at $500 billion over 10 years — and taxpayers have learned by now that government entitlement programs often cost far more than their advocates estimate in advance. (Remember when Medicaid was projected to cost $1 billion a year? [Oops.](http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/FYI22.cfm)) And the DLC promises to raise taxes to cover the costs. There are millions of libertarian-leaning voters disgruntled with the Republicans’ social conservatism, soaring spending, and ill-fated war. And Democrats are doing everything they can to discourage those voters from switching parties. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).