Promising to rewrite the tax code, former U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and now Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, offered nothing new in stump speech on the economy. Given the Republican-controlled Congress, it’s doubtful Hillary could get anywhere with Tea Party conservative Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), now head of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. “It’s America’s basic bargain,” Hillary told supporters on Franklin D. Roosevelt Island on the East River. “If you do your part, you ought to be able to get ahead, and when everybody does their part, America gets ahead too,” showing rhetorical flair but offering no specific plan for correcting the wealth disparity, that separates the superrich from what’s become a dwindling middle class. Advocating “real and lasting prosperity,” Hillary takes a swipe at incumbent President Barack Obama.
When Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009, the economy was in shambles, facing the worst recession since the Great Depression. By all metrics, government or otherwise, the economy’s made a spectacular recovery, adding some 10 million jobs, reducing federal budget deficits from $1.4 trillion to under $500 billion, dropping the unemployment rate from 9.3% to 5.4% yet somehow the nation’s Gross Domestic product remains flat. “That bargain inspired generations of American families, including my own,” Clinton told her first major campaign rally, hoping to contrast herself with her Republican challengers, offering little other than more free market capitalism. Without getting to technical, Clinton wanted to contrast herself with the GOP’s top-down or “trickle down” economics where low taxes and improved corporate earnings translate into more jobs and prosperity for ordinary citizens.
Since Obama took office, the GOP caucus on Capitol Hill led by Ryan’s House Budget Committee opposed expanding government employment, an essential part of the American middle class. Hillary mentions nothing in her speech about what she’d do to increase federal jobs, with livable wages, health care and retirement benefits. “Real and lasting prosperity must be built and shared by all,” said Hillary, saying nothing about what she’d do differently than her predecessor whose hands have been tied by a Republican Congress. Talking about prosperity doesn’t translate into anything unless both parties heed the calls of economists calling for an expansion of the federal workforce. Reconstructing an equitable prosperity for ordinary taxpayers starts with good jobs with livable wages and benefits. Too many of today’s jobs are minimum wage and part-time, hurting U.S. GDP.
Hillary’s message needs to get down to basics: Telling folks she’ll fight for more government infrastructure jobs. Calling herself a “tenacious fighter,” Clinton needs to distinguish fighting for herself or for others. No one doubts Hillary’s political ambitions or commitment to public service. What she has to state clearly in campaign speeches is how she’ll do things differently from not only her Republican counterparts but Obama, who’s spent nearly seven hears trying to fix things. Voters want to know that there’s method to the madness, not just empty campaign promises and hot air. When you look at the big picture economically, it’s clear that the lack of progress in prosperity relates directly to the over-abundance of low-paying, part-time private sector jobs. Boosting government employment, especially in vital infrastructure projects, would be a step in the right direction.
Hillary wants U.S. citizens to live “in a place with absolutely no ceilings” but can’t figure out what to do to improve opportunity for the middle class. Republicans in Congress have blocked any attempt to expand government employment with vial infrastructure programs needed in every big city in America. Getting down to brass tacks means more than telling your daughter there’s no ceiling, “even president of the United States.” While there’s nothing wrong with talking women’s rights, ordinary citizens need more mundane types of employment with good salaries and benefits. No family can live or get ahead on part-time employment or today’s minimum wage. Fighting for more government employment would distinguish herself from he Republican competitors than talking of shrinking the federal establishment. Without the federal government, there would not be a thriving middle class.
Getting off on the right foot in Roosevelt Island, Hillary set the right tone talking about improving opportunity, especially for the shrinking middle class. “I have been called many things by many people. Quitter is not one of them,” Hillary told cheering supporters looking for better answers than her Democratic or Republican competitors. When running for president in 1992 against former President George H.W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton would often say he had better ideas. Hillary needs to follow the same plan but, like Bill, offer real solutions not just high-minded rhetoric. “I wish she could have seen the America we are going to build together,” said Hillary, referring to her late mother, Dorothy Howell Rodham who died Nov. 1, 2011. If Hillary really wants to make difference and distinguish herself from all other candidates, she needs to be clear what she’d do differently.
