Clinton Economic Plan – Part 2

Bruce Bialosky

The tension rose as one of America’s leading political figures took the stage to deliver a speech which would enthrall the anxious crowd and leave them in a rapturous state. Then Hillary Clinton mounted the stage and reality set in. She chose to harangue Donald Trump and use him as a foil, but she clearly made many statements contrasting herself with him that revealed her own economic plan. So we will take direct quotes from her speech on June 21^st and amplify them.
In the beginning of her speech, she told us that her economic plan was on her website and “I admit it is a little wonky, but I believe presidential candidates should lay out their plans.” Translation: If you can endure the reading and can comprehend it, she is telling you how she plans to micromanage the economy from Washington and further have the government control your life. If this wasn’t the case, her plan would not be wonky.



Then she said, “We know people are working harder and longer just to keep their heads above water and deal with the everyday costs of basics like childcare and prescription drugs that are too high, college is getting more expensive every day and wages are still too low and inequality is too great. Goods jobs in many parts of our country are too hard to come by.”
Translation: Wow, she really said that. Republicans do not have to condemn the Obama economy when Clinton is running around damning his stewardship over the past 7.5 years. Makes you wonder why anyone would want to vote for his endorsed successor.

Then came this one. “It is a simple formula: higher wages lead to more demand which leads to more jobs with higher wages.” Translation: This woman has no understanding of basic economics. Higher demand leads to more jobs which creates more demand for labor which creates competition for employees which raises wages and thus employees end up making more money. She thinks she can just create higher wages by fiat. She cannot. She ignores the competitive pressure of millions of people sitting on the sidelines looking for work in America, and the other 190 countries willing to supply goods and services at potentially lower prices. Additionally, there are people who come to our country illegally who supply labor at low prices which drives down the labor market – and she has no plan to stop that.
Next was one of her standard statements about centralized control of the economy. “We are going to make transformative investments in good paying jobs in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and small business.” Translation: First, she can speak very wonky. Second: She wants to expand her crony capitalism in a command-and-control economy of picking winners and losers with our money. But please don’t worry. It is all for a good cause. Third: You will be able to tell who gets our money under her new programs by which companies her husband gives lucrative speeches to.

The following one is a great new think tank idea she threw at us: “Innovative ideas like corporate profit sharing because everyone who works should share in the rewards of their work.” Translation: In addition to trying to tell executives how much money they can make, she now wants to tell them how much they should pay their employees. Maybe someone should tell her employees already share in the profits – it is called a paycheck. And many employees already get bonuses and contributions to pension plans. Come to think of it, their compensation package would be better determined by a faceless lawyer in Washington writing regulations no one understands and makes criminals out of corporate executives.
Speaking of Trump, she stated: “He wants to end Obamacare with no credible plan to replace it or keep costs down. It would not be good for our economy if 20 million people lost their health insurance and we were back to skyrocketing costs for everything.”

This statement is so bloated with misleading innuendoes they must be bullet pointed:
· She continues Obama’s big lie that Republicans have no credible plan. They have plans. Tom Price (R-GA) has had a plan for ages. Speaker Paul Ryan has a plan. Others have plans. Why legislate them when Obama is just going to veto them?
· Even so she is saying we should stick with a plan that is killing jobs, stifling job development and adding soaring costs.
· No, that is not all she is saying. She wants to create a government-operated insurance company – named the “public option.” It will undercut private insurance companies by discounting fees and burying its losses in the federal budget. This is the next step toward nationalization of our health care system and total control by Hillary and her gang.

· The real number of new people having health insurance is the 11 million on Medicaid. They have health insurance, but they only have marginally better medical care because no doctors or hospitals want them as patients unless forced.
· This entire program could have been done without destroying everyone else’s health insurance with a few tweaks to the existing plans and getting everyone else on Medicaid. But they want to control the medical system from Washington.
· As this column has pointed out there is more demand, but without more supply of nurses, doctors or hospitals, and demand at emergency rooms has not gone down because of Obamacare.
· She really talked about going back to soaring costs? She cannot be unaware of the soaring losses for the health insurance companies in 2015 and the huge rate increases to us in 2016. She cannot be unaware of the major insurance companies pulling out of markets and the requests for rate increases of 50% or 60%. One of many examples is those insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee received a 36% increase in 2015 and are proposing a 62% increase this year to stem its huge losses.
There is more to come, but you are just going to have to wait for Part 3. Clinton’s statements on the economy and what she wants to do are just too varied and too rich with irony.
P.S. Her statements will be denied in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.