Hillary Clinton pushes economic plan, promises to raise taxes on rich


Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks at a 3D printer with a student as she tours classrooms at John Marshall High School in Cleveland, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, before participating in a campaign event. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) more >

The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Saying the nation will need the “resources” to implement free college, a massive investment in infrastructure and other priorities, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday outlined an economic plan that relies heavily on hiking taxes on the wealthy.

Speaking at a high school in Cleveland, the Democratic presidential nominee vowed not to raise taxes on middle-class families and tried to contrast her economic approach with that of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump. Middle-class workers, Mrs. Clinton said, would get crushed under a Trump administration as the businessman would funnel tax breaks to the wealthy and institute new loopholes benefiting major U.S. corporations.

But the former first lady made clear that Wall Street, major corporations and millionaires and billionaires would squarely be in her crosshairs if she makes it to the Oval Office.

“We are going to tax the wealthy who have made all of the income gains in the last 15 years, the super wealthy, the corporations, Wall Street, they’re going to have to invest in education, in skills training, in infrastructure, because we have to grow this economy. We do need to have the resources to do that,” she said.

“I will not raise taxes on the middle class. The middle class has to catch up to where they were before the Great Recession.”

Mrs. Clinton went on to blast Mr. Trump’s tax proposals, which she says will allow the rich to find new ways to avoid paying their share.

“Under his plans, Donald Trump would pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton made just a passing mention to the latest shakeup inside the Trump campaign, saying only that the Republican billionaire will not change, no matter who gets hired or fired from his operation.

Instead, Mrs. Clinton — along with vice-presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine, who also was on the trail Wednesday in Iowa — chose mostly to focus on policy.

Should she become president, Mrs. Clinton promised to connect every home in the country to broadband internet, create millions of jobs by rebuilding infrastructure across the country, raise the national minimum wage, institute equal pay for women, make child care more affordable and provide debt-free college for most Americans.

Mrs. Clinton also told Ohioans that she’ll dramatically bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

“They are once again getting out of reach,” she said of drug costs. “Let’s be clear: Your tax dollars helped support the research that helped create those drugs in the first place. … We have got to take this on, and we can do it without hurting research and discovery and new drugs and new devices.”

But Republican critics fired back Wednesday and charged that Mrs. Clinton’s new vow to not raise taxes on the middle class doesn’t square with her record in the U.S. Senate. The Republican National Committee released a fact sheet pointing to Mrs. Clinton’s votes in 2006 and 2007 to raise the capital gains tax on middle-class Americans and to raise taxes on Americans making over $164,550.

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