Pete Buttigieg can only be considered a moderate by the drastically-skewed scale of the 2020 presidential election campaign.

The former mayor of South Bend, Ind. wants to expand free health care and allow Medicare to compete with private insurance. He wants free tuition for 80 percent of American teens and higher taxes on the rich to employ millions of people to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

Mayor Pete’s policies harken back to a New Deal liberalism not seen since World War II, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In an era of growing income inequality, rising middle-class anger and an out-of-touch elite, offering all-you-can-eat cake, some of his proposals are reasonable.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written columns looking at Elizabeth Warren’s energy policy, Bernie Sanders’ socialism, and President Donald Trump’s fulfillment of campaign promises. Before the Texas primary election on March 3, I’ll look at the economic and health policies of the top Democratic candidates.

Buttigieg, 38, has positioned himself as a moderate in the 2020 race, which by historical standards, is a dubious claim. But when compared to Warren and Sanders, he’s practically a conservative.

More: Health care lobby won in 2019, voters have a chance to win in 2020

To address the crisis in U.S. health care, Buttigieg offers Medicare for All Who Want It, an unwieldy and derivative moniker for a commonsense solution.

“What I’m offering is a choice,” he explained at the CNN-Des Moines Register debate. “You don’t have to be in my plan if there’s another plan that you would rather keep. And there’s no need to kick Americans off the plans that they want in order to deliver health care for all.”

Republicans have murdered this proposal every time it’s arisen since the Clinton Administration. But I think it offers a fabulous test for the business community’s claim that anything government can do, they can do better.

After all, President Ronald Reagan is the one who pushed for private companies to take over tasks historically performed by the government. If private plans are so good, then insurers should have nothing to fear from Medicare.

Buttigieg’s proposal would also solve the free-rider problem, where you and I pay more because so many people don’t have insurance. Everyone would be covered, which will solve a lot of problems.

Buttigieg is Clintonian in many other ways, which infuriates both the left and the right.

Under a President Pete, the federal government would require businesses to boost lower- and middle-class standards of living. He would raise the minimum wage to $15 for 25 million Americans, expand the earned income tax credit for the working poor and require paid sick leave and 12 weeks of family and medical leave.

Simultaneously, Buttigieg would spend taxpayer money building affordable housing, subsidizing childcare and providing free tuition.

Where Republicans say tax cuts pay for themselves with increased business activity, Buttigieg’s campaign argues that tax spending will partially pay for itself through higher consumer activity.

The difference is that Buttigieg knows he’ll need to pay for at least part of his spending, and he’s ready to roll back Trump’s tax cuts. Yet he still claims he will not be as loose with the public pocketbook as his rivals.

“We’ve got to move past a Washington mentality that suggests that the bigness of plans only consists of how many trillions of dollars they put through the Treasury,” he said at the debate. “We’ve got to be making sure that we target our tax dollars where they will make the biggest difference.”

More: Biden’s son was playing off his name, and it’s too common

Even that mild form of fiscal conservatism has landed Buttigieg in hot water with the left. They want Medicare for All, with no other options. They want free college tuition for rich kids as well as poor. And worst of all, they found out “Wall Street Pete” once wore a suit to work.

Buttigieg spent nearly three years as an associate at McKinsey & Company, the evil empire of consulting firms. He’s also accepted campaign money from millionaire investors, not just wage slaves.

Ironically, the man who would be the youngest president in U.S. history is despised by voters under 35, according to a Quinnipiac poll. He’s lucky they are also the least likely to show up to the polls.

Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo, but deeply divided over how to fix the nation. Of the Democratic candidates, Buttigieg offers some of the most conventionally liberal solutions to our problems.

Buttigieg will disappoint those looking for radical change because he promises the Great Society, not a socialist revolution. Moderates, though, may find he strikes a respectable balance in an age of extremism.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com