Vows more active role in guiding economy, using tax, regulatory policyThe nation's free-market doctrine is ill-suited for today's global market, Sen. Hillary Clinton emphasized in an interview with USA Today.
The New York Democrat told the national daily that if elected president, she will aggressively use federal tax and regulatory policy to promote key sectors of the U.S. economy.
| "And the money kept rolling out in all directions To the poor to the weak to the destitute of all complexions Now cynics claim a little of the cash has gone astray But that's not the point my friends When the money keeps rolling out you don't keep books You can tell you've done well by the happy grateful looks Accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way Never been a lady loved as much as Eva Peron!" |
| Sounds like a 1930s soviet style economy, except for the wind turbines ... |
Leaving economic outcomes to the market, she argued, has resulted in stagnant incomes for the typical family and special treatment for the well-connected. "People say all the time, 'We can't pick winners and losers.' Well, then fine. Take every single dollar of subsidy out of the federal tax code. Get rid of all of it. Â… Let's have a real level playing field where nobody gets a penny in subsidy," Clinton told USA Today. "Then see what happens. You'd hear the squeals of protest from Wall Street to Houston to Silicon Valley."
As WND reported, Sen. Barack Obama expressed skepticism about free-market values as he entered politics in 1995, disparaging the "right wing" American value of achieving prosperity through personal initiative as the "old individualistic bootstrap myth."
USA Today – speaking to Clinton after a town hall meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – said she offered few details of how business incentives would be reshaped other than to vow to preserve auto manufacturing and steel-making capacity and promote alternative energy industries.
But she insisted that government subsidies are needed to counteract the market's tendency to "punish" investments that don't deliver swift returns.
The paper said her most impassioned remarks in the interview came as she blistered the oil companies and the "moneyed class" she said has reaped the economy's rewards. "Americans have been sold a bill of goods about the way the economy should work through a very concerted ideological effort at propaganda," she said.
| I wonder if this means all the Dhimmicratic hedge fund operators have to give their money back ... |
Clinton, touting the 1990s economic record of her husband, President Bill Clinton, promised to create 3 million jobs by investing in building roads and bridges.
Clinton also said that if she becomes president, she will push for a more active government role in shaping the effect of globalization on the economy, including identifying key industries for protection. That includes identifying key industries for protection, she said. "We have to adjust our view of this. Â… What is it we really believe the United States should continue to make? I would put certain defense items in that category. I would put certain basic goods in that category, like steel," she said. "If you look at every other country, they make such judgments like that. We are competing against countries that directly and indirectly subsidize what they have concluded to be in their national interest."
Clinton was asked whether she favored coordinated central bank intervention to halt the decline of the dollar worldwide but did not respond directly, USA Today said. She suggested a change in the White House would bring a reversal. "It is in danger with respect to being a reserve currency," she said. "A lot of the problem is of our own making. I think we could see the dollar start to creep up if we had a different president."