In case you haven’t heard, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke in our fair state yesterday.
Clinton’s visit comes a week after presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump visited Greensboro. Surprise—the editorials from the hometown newspaper following each candidate’s speech are like night and day. Last week it was —ooh scary scary—Trump’s ‘dark vision’; this week it’s a ‘confident Clinton’:
In a speech that was upbeat and confident, Clinton drove home the key differences between her and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, and their plans for America.
In short, she has one — a five-point plan to energize the economy. It included making major investments in areas including infrastructure, technology, advanced manufacturing and clean energy that she said would provide more than 100,000 jobs.
She took a page from Bernie Sanders’ book, promising to providing debt-free college and refinancing for those carrying student loan debt. And she offered a package of family-friendly policies, which included strengthening access to affordable child care, health care and prescription drugs, and expanding Social Security.
She’d pay the tab by reforming the tax code to ensure that corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their share. Companies that take jobs and profits overseas would pay an “exit tax.” She promised to bring true reform to Wall Street, and rewrite the rules to ensure that companies share more of the profits with workers.
Infrastructure, clean energy, debt-free college—all paid for by raising taxes on the rich. Gee, never heard those ideas before. Look I’ve got many reservations about Trump, leading me to believe that we’re screwed no matter who wins come November. But the idea that Clinton’s tired old ideas are somewhow confident, upbeat and fresh is nonsense.
