While Donald Trump was busy keeping up his amazing 75 percent of everything he says is a lie batting average in a speech based on heavily debunked conspiracy theories, Hillary Clinton was instead giving a detailed policy address to explain how she will grow the economy.
That may lack some of the pizzazz of a speech scripted by the Hoover Institute’s black helicopter team, but hey, it’s nice that one of the candidates has ideas for governing with just a little more detail than six bullet points hidden in a 40-minute hate-and-lie extravaganza.
Clinton made it clear that she’s after a solution that works directly for everyone, poor through wealthy, rather than tossing more dollars to those on top in hopes they’ll drop a few dimes.
Hillary set herself directly against the idea of trickle-down economics, calling it a “failed economic theory” that had too many politicians “in its grips.” She directly attacked the idea of reducing taxes on the wealthy as a means of stimulating growth. She blamed this theory for not just harming the economy, but starving the government of needed funds.
If the evidence were there to support this ideology, I would have to acknowledge that, but we have seen the results. Twice now in the past 30 years a Republican president has caused an economic mess and a Democratic president has had to come in and clean it up.
Let’s hope that’s a statement we hear again.
Hillary went on to place some of the blame for this on lobbyists who have protected the wealthy, hedge funds, shareholders, and CEOs instead of workers—even over the long-term value of corporations.
The bottom line is that too many leaders in business and government have lost sight of our shared responsibility to each other and to our nation.
They let Wall Street take big risks with unregulated financial activities, they skew our tax code toward the wealthy, they failed to enforce our trade rules, they undermined workers’ rights.
Then she went on to lay out the ideas at the core of her plans.
- Make the biggest investment in new, good-paying jobs since World War II.
- Make college debt-free for all. And transform the way we prepare Americans for the jobs of the future.
- Rewrite the rules so more companies share profits with their employees.
- Make sure that Wall Street, corporations, and the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes.
The first item—the next generation of good jobs—is focused on a large investment in infrastructure, including the concept of an “infrastructure bank” to attract private dollars into the construction of new roads, bridges, airports, internet, power grid, schools and other elements.
This jobs package will also involve support for advanced manufacturing techniques and for turning America into “the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.”
Hillary also supported raising the minimum wage, comprehensive immigration reform, and selective investment to bring jobs where they are most needed.
On the education issue, Clinton started with affordable childcare and pre-school and worked right on through to a system of tax credits for paid apprenticeships and a goal of making four-year colleges ”debt-free” for everyone, as well as refinancing existing student loans.
Perhaps the most interesting idea was that rules of incorporation might be rewritten so that companies share profits with employees. The result would be more dollars in consumer hands, so more opportunity for corporations in the long-term.
… let’s bring a long-term view back to board rooms and executive suites. Let’s restore the link between productivity growth and wage growth.
On the tax front, Clinton supported closing loopholes in the tax code and imposing the Buffet Rule, along with a new tax on multimillionaires. But she stopped short of putting numbers around these ideas.
Finally, she spent some time acknowledging changes in the workplace and challenges workers in this generation face, and called for changes to Social Security to meet some of those demands.
The old model of work where you could expect to hold a steady job with good benefits for an entire career, is long gone. People in their 20s and 30s have come of age in an economy that’s totally different. And a lot of young parents are discovering just how tough that is on families. Many people now have wildly unpredictable schedules, or they cobble together part time work, or they’ve tried to go independent. ... In today’s economy, benefits should be flexible, portable, and comprehensive for everyone. That means it’s time to expand Social Security as well.
Probably not a total coincidence that in one of her opening lines, Hillary slipped this in:
As we Methodists say: do all the good you can to all the people you can in all the ways you can. And that is absolutely true for our children.
Earlier this week, in meeting with evangelical Christians, Donald Trump declared that Hillary never talks about her religion. Probably because the only time Trump ‘listens’ to Hillary Clinton consists of fabricated quotes pulled from right-wing pseudo-history.