Democratic US presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday laid out her agenda to help US workers, pledging to build a “growth and fairness economy” if elected to the White House that would boost wages that have remained stagnant since the so-called Great Recession.
In the first major economic speech of her presidential campaign, the former US secretary of state vowed to crack down on Wall Street excess and said that a large field of Republican White House hopefuls would promote tax cuts and a return to policies that would swell national debt.
She singled out three prominent Republicans by name, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, accusing him of failing to understand the plight of workers.
“You may have heard governor Bush say last week that Americans just need to work longer hours. Well, he must not have met very many American workers,” Clinton said at The New School in New York, urging Bush to speak to nurses, truckers or fast food workers.
“They don’t need a lecture. They need a raise,” she added.
Bush spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger said that Clinton was “proposing the same failed policies we have seen in the [US President Barack] Obama economy, where the typical American household’s income has declined and it is harder for businesses to hire and the middle class to achieve rising incomes.”
Clinton sought to appeal to liberal voters within her party who have questioned her willingness to regulate Wall Street and rallied behind her main Democratic rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
The message also appeared aimed at voters who have seen little gains in their paychecks even as the national economy improves.
“As the shadow of crisis recedes and longer-term challenges come into focus, I believe we have to build a growth and fairness economy,” Clinton said. “You can’t have one without the other.”
Clinton said she would propose more public investment in infrastructure, advance sources of renewable energy and cut taxes for small business owners.
She expressed support for an increase in the federal minimum wage, an overhaul to the tax code and policy proposals related to child care and paid family leave.
Clinton, who maintained strong ties to Wall Street as a New York senator, pushed back against the industry, saying the largest financial institutions had too often focused on short-term profits instead of helping grow the economy.
She expressed outrage at accounts of money laundering and currency manipulation involving several major financial firms, calling it “shocking,” and promised criminal prosecutions of bad bankers.
One firm she identified, HSBC, paid former US President Bill Clinton US$200,000 to speak at a Florida conference in 2011, an appearance that was cleared by the US Department of State despite an ongoing federal money laundering probe that led HSBC to reach a 2012 settlement with prosecutors.
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