Gary M. Wisenbaker, Valdosta Today Editorial Director
VALDOSTA—Lost in the media and punditry din following the announcement of the Iranian nuclear deal and the shocking Planned Parenthood baby-parts-for-sale scandal, was Hillary Clinton’s “Big Economic Speech” recently given at NYU.
Clinton now seeks to translate her 2014 quote into economic policy. It’s problematic that this is what she actually believes; it’s downright dangerous that she could actually do it.
No doubt Clinton’s doing her best given the cards she’s dealt. It’s hard for a Democrat to criticize the current economy (anemic GDP and employment numbers, fewer workers seeking fewer full time jobs, stagnant wages, rising health care costs, lowest homeownership rate in 48 years) since they own it. But more than that, Clinton participated in two Democratic administrations which ruled the roost for 16 of the last 22 years.
What’s a former first lady, US Senator and secretary of state to do?
Simple: prevaricate. It’s not like it’s a new strategy: The Mohamed video caused the Benghazi attack. Right. “I have turned over all my work related emails to the State Department.” Okay. Even the New York Times didn’t bite off on that one.
But back to the economy, who to blame and her “fix”.
Clinton can still blame Reagan, and she did. “For 35 years, Republicans have argued that if we give more wealth to those at the top — by cutting their taxes and letting big corporations write their own rules — it will trickle down, it will trickle down to everyone else.”
The problem here is that the policies she rails against didn’t “trickle” anything, they gushed.
Unemployment during the Reagan/Bush years fell 45 percent, economic growth averaged 4.6 percent, average American income increased across the board and federal revenues increased from $500 billion to $1 trillion in 1990.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also has a historical problem.
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 producing these benefits was passed by a Democratic House of Representatives. And when her husband assumed office in 1993, he inherited not only a booming economy but continued many of those same policies by cutting the capital gains tax and staying out of the way.
And blaming Bush II is, of course, de rigueur, even though he’s been out of office for six years. And she did that, too.
“Hillarynomics’, however, is a threat to capitalism and free enterprise. And Clinton’s speech was not too subtle about her intentions.
Replete throughout her speech is the standard progressive left article of faith that the source of wealth is “we”, meaning government, as in “if we give more wealth to those at the top…” Government also, of course, creates jobs.
And then there’s “fairness”, clearly a code word for wealth redistribution through increased taxation and regulation.
So, to “fix” the economy, government must find a better way to create and distribute the national wealth.
Clinton wants an “infrastructure bank” to channel public and private funds for airports, railways, roads, bridges and ports. Thus she seeks to harness private enterprise to achieve state objectives. Think about that for a minute.
Clinton proposes more regulations similar to Obama’s recently announced new overtime rules that would raise the minimum wage, tell corporations what they can pay their executives, and instruct publicly held corporations about what they can and cannot do with their profits and dividends.
Companies utilizing independent contractors would be forced to classify them as employees or face stiff penalties. Larger payrolls means greater government control over unionization and paid leave issues, an essential element of the socialist state.
The proposed economic plan includes tax hikes on sole proprietorships and “Sub S” business owners, typically family owned businesses (“the wealthy”), and raises the capital gains tax on shorter term investments.
Clinton actually believes “We also have to go beyond Dodd-Frank.” This legislation brought about bigger “big banks” and fewer community banks. Dodd-Frank’s passage also resulted in fewer banks offering free checking, a direct hit on the consumer. Wanting to “go beyond” simply doesn’t bode well.
Hillarynomics leaves so little unclaimed on the progressive left agenda that one wonders what self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders is left to run on.
The answer is: not much.
Gary Wisenbaker, B.A., J.D. is a native of South Georgia where he practiced law in Valdosta and Savannah for 31 years. He has served as state chairman of the Georgia Young Republicans and Chairman of the Chatham County (Savannah) Republican Party. Gary is a past GOP nominee for State Senate, past delegate to the Republican National Convention and has consulted on numerous local Republican campaigns as well as chaired or co-chaired campaigns for President and US Senate on the county and district level. He is the principal and founder of Blackstone, LLC, a corporate communications and public relations concern as well as Wiregrass Mediation Services, LLC, a general civil litigation mediation firm.
Gary hosts his own blog at www.garywisenbaker.com and recently published his first fictional work, “How Great is His Mercy: The Plea”, on Amazon.com. His opinions are regularly published on ValdostaToday.com.
