Hillary toured the John Marshall High School in Cleveland before she
delivered an address on the economy that touched upon the many factors
that affect the bottom line for Americans and for the nation.
Following
a tour at Cleveland's John Marshall High School on Wednesday, Hillary
Clinton rallied her supporters and contrasted her tax plan designed to
invest in Ohio with Donald Trump's, which would provide trillions in tax
breaks for billionaires and millionaires like him at the expense of
working Americans. While Clinton has a "100-Day Jobs Plan"targeted
towards families and small businesses, Trump would eliminate the Estate
Tax, which could give his own family alone $4 billion in tax breaks. We
can't say for sure how much, however, Clinton reminded the crowd, since
Trump refuses to release his tax returns.
Clinton also
highlighted trillions of dollars of other tax breaks in Trump's plan for
Wall Street and big corporations, such as the "Trump Loophole" -- a
backdoor tax break Trump has proposed that lets the wealthy cut their
tax rate in half on a substantial portion of their income. She promised
to use that money instead for crucial investments including
infrastructure, education, health care, and other
priorities, adding, "Now, think of what we could do with $4 billion in
Ohio. We could build 280 new elementary schools. We could eliminate the
outstanding student loan of 166,000 Ohioans. We could provide health
care to 370,000 veterans […] Donald Trump doesn’t need a tax cut. I
don’t need a tax cut. It’s time for the wealthiest Americans, whoever
you are, as well as corporations and Wall Street, to pay your fair share
in taxes."
Clinton said John Marshall School represents the type
of investment we should be making rather than giving further tax breaks
to those at the top. She believes the opportunities afforded to students
there – a “small schools” model in which students choose between
directed programs in engineering, information technology and business
and civic leadership – can be afforded to all students, regardless of
ZIP code or background.
Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hello.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Wow. I am so happy to be here. It is
great being in Cleveland. Thank you all. I want to thank Kim Greytak, a
teacher right here at John Marshall, for introducing me. And I want to
thank all the teachers and educators, the staff, and the students of
John Marshall. I am delighted to be here with your mayor, Mayor Frank
Jackson. Also, with my longtime friend, your former governor, candidate
for the Senate, Ted Strickland. With your county executive, County
Executive Budish, I know is here somewhere. And with my great friend
who did an excellent job presiding over the Democratic National
Convention, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge.
I always love being here,
and today is particularly special, because I got a tour of this high
school. And I first of all want to thank the people of Cleveland for
investing in a high school that is really all about the future. What a
stark contrast this high school poses to what happened here in Cleveland
during the Republican Convention. Because, honestly, they painted such
a bleak, negative picture of America, I couldn’t recognize our
country. Listening to their angry speeches, the kind of negative view
that they had of our people, Donald Trump saying we never win anymore –
well, tell that to the Cavaliers. Tell that to our Olympic athletes, who
are cleaning up in Rio.
There is nothing we can’t do if we put
our minds to it. And that’s how I want America to feel about itself,
and how I want every American to feel. And I saw the future. The
students and teachers who showed me what they’re doing here in robotics,
in 3-D design, in laser design, in entrepreneurial and civic education –
I for one am really proud of this high school and what it represents
for the students here. And why is that so important for those of us who
are no longer in high school? Because we’ve got to get the economy
working for everybody, not just those at the top. And how are we going
to do that? Well, I know that too many families right here in Ohio are
feeling a lot of financial stress. Worrying about how they’re going to
make ends meet, dealing with all the costs from childcare to
prescription drugs. I understand that.
That’s why I have laid out
specific plans about how we’re going to get the economy working for
everyone. And I think it’s important, when someone comes to you and
asks for your support, running for president, that maybe they tell you
what they want to do, so that you can decide who you want to vote for.
And sometimes, you know, I get criticized for doing that. People say,
oh, there she goes. She has another plan. Well, I do. I’ve got an
infrastructure plan to create millions of jobs fixing our roads, our
bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, our water systems, our
sewer systems. As part of that plan, I want to start a national
infrastructure bank so that we have public and private funds working
together, so we don’t just wait on Congress to act, but we are building,
rebuilding, maintaining all the time.
And it’s not just what we
can see, as important as that is. We need a new modern electric grid
that can take and distribute clean, renewable energy across America. And
we need to finally finish the job of connecting every home and business
everywhere in America, from inner cities to remote rural areas to
high-speed broadband access, so they can be part of the 21st-century
digital economy. I was talking to a group of my friends who are teachers
– I love teachers. Thank you all for being here with me. And they were
telling me there had just been a national survey done. And the
teachers were asked, do you ever assign homework that requires your
students to go on the Internet? And the answer was 70 percent, yes,
they did.
Now, that makes perfect sense if you just saw what I
saw. You’ve got to have knowledge of the Internet. You’ve got to be
able to learn to use it. It can spark your imagination, create new
dreams. I met young people – I said, well, what got you interested in
computer design, 3-D design, robots? They were interested in the arts.
They were interested in what they could do to design and make things.
So the answer was 70 percent of teachers, but here’s the problem: 5
million students – 5 million homes with students in them in America do
not have access to the Internet. And so we’re already creating a big
gap. A homework gap, which turns into an achievement gap, and doesn’t
give every kid the chance to go as far as his or her hard work and
talent will take them.
So when I talk about infrastructure, I’m
talking about making our economy more competitive and creating more
opportunities for more Americans willing to work for it. Because I
believe in the basic bargain: if you’re willing to work, you ought to be
able to get ahead and stay ahead. That’s how I was raised. That’s
what I want Americans to believe again. You know, this past Monday I was
in Scranton, Pennsylvania with Joe Biden. And Joe was born in
Scranton. My grandparents – my father was born in Scranton. I went
back to Scranton every summer. A lot of Christmas holidays.
My
grandfather was an immigrant. Came as a young child. He worked in the
Scranton Lace Factory making lace, which was a big deal back in those
days. I remember, we used to have lace curtains and lace tablecloths
and things like that. And my grandfather worked really hard, because he
believed if he worked hard, he could provide a better life for his
kids. And he did. My dad got to go to college. He went to Penn State,
where he played football. And then he took a job in the Midwest as a
salesman, and then went into the Navy during World War II, and when he
came out, he started a small business. And he worked really hard.
And
I used to go help him sometimes, because he printed fabric for
draperies, and he had a print plant. And he had two long tables. And
it was, you know, not a – it was just an old plant. It was, you know,
low ceilings, no windows. And he would print that drapery fabric. He’d
take an old-fashioned silkscreen and he’d put it down, he’d pour the
paint in, and then take a squeegee and then go from one side to the
other, pick up the screen, keep going down the table. And he provided a
good life. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago. And so I know what the
American dream is all about. I am proud to be the granddaughter of a
factory worker and the daughter of a small businessman, and standing
here before you.
And so when I think about how hard my dad worked,
and I think about him printing those fabrics and then loading them into
his car, and delivering them to whoever had ordered them, and then
expecting to be paid, because he had done the work, it just really hits
me personally when people are standing up and telling their stories:
they were small business people, they were plumbers, electricians,
painters, who did work for Donald Trump, and he refused to pay them.
That violates the basic bargain. If you do your job, you’re supposed to
be rewarded for your work. Not stiffed. Not told to go sue somebody.
And
I can’t help but take it personally, because I think about, what would
have happened to my family if my father had taken a job like that and
put his heart and soul into it, bought the material, bought the paint,
did the labor, shows up, delivers the product, and is told, we’re not
paying you? But person after person, small business after small
business is telling the same story. That they were not paid. They were
told to go sue Donald Trump. Well, you’re a small business. You can’t
afford lawyers to go sue somebody. That’s not the way it’s supposed to
work.
So when I talk about creating new jobs in infrastructure,
advanced manufacturing, clean, renewable energy, I also talk about
creating more small businesses. And small businesses that will actually
grow and give more people a chance to fulfill their dreams, and will be
part of the basic bargain, who will be paid for the work that they do,
so they can stay in business.
Now, I’ve got to tell you, creating
the jobs of the future means we’ve got to make sure that all Americans,
not just young Americans, have all the education and all the skills that
are needed. That’s why I want to start with early childhood education,
so that more young kids I saw right here in John Marshall across
America, so that high school students can be better prepared. You know,
when we stopped doing vocational education some years ago, we basically
sent a message to so many young people: there’s only one way to be
successful in America. You’ve got to go to a four-year college.
That
is so unfair, and it’s also untrue. Actually, if you look at job
projections, more than half of the jobs that will be available in
America in 2020 will not require a four-year college degree. And so how
are we going to get our people prepared? We’re going to bring more
technical education. Not the old-fashioned kind, but what I saw here at
John Marshall. We’re going to bring computer coding, like I saw in a
classroom just a few minutes ago, we’re going to bring engineering and
design work, we’re going to give young kids in high school the chance to
either get that education right in their own school, or go to a
community college that will provide it, and give them credit to get a
credential, an associate degree, or credit to go on to a four-year
college. So we’re going to do more on apprenticeship programs.
I
want everybody who’s willing to work to be prepared. I don’t want any
excuses. I’m a kind of no excuse person. If you are willing to do the
work, I want to make sure that we’ve got an economy that will produce
the jobs. And then I want to make four-year college affordable. If you
go to a four-year public college or university, it should be
affordable. And we’re going to make community college free for everybody
that wants to go to community college. And we’re going to help
everybody with student debt pay down the debt. Get it off their backs.
Now,
I think it’s – I think it’s fair to say, okay, well, how are you going
to do all that? That’s fair to ask. Well, we’re going to do it in two
ways. Number one, we are going to tax the wealthy, who have made all of
the income gains in the last 15 years – the super-wealthy,
corporations, Wall Street. They’re going to have to invest in
education, in skills training, in infrastructure, because we have to
grow this economy. We do need to have the resources to do that. And
I’ve laid out what I want to do and how I would do it – closing the
loopholes, creating a fairer tax system. But I’ve made very clear I’m
the only candidate who ran in either the Democratic or the Republican
Primary who said from the very beginning, I will not raise taxes on the
middle class. The middle class has to catch up to where they were before
the Great Recession.
And so I’ve laid this all out. And so
independent analysts, economists and others, are looking at what I’ve
said and what Donald Trump has said. And in fact, according to an
independent analysis by Moody’s Analytics, carried out by the man who
was John McCain’s economic advisor, if you were to implement what I am
proposing, we would create at least 10 million new jobs in the first
term of my administration. By contrast, if you look at what Trump is
proposing, and how he wants to give huge tax breaks to people who are
wealthy like him, it would cost our economy 3.4 million jobs. Now, this
is not me saying it. This is an independent analysis saying it, that
has tried to look at both of us very objectively.
But what does
that mean for Ohio? If we divide across the country by population, Ohio
would gain 376,000 jobs under my plans and lose more than 123,000 jobs
under Donald Trump’s plans. And it’s not hard to see why – because he
wants to give tax cuts to big corporations, millionaires, Wall Street
money managers. He’s even created a new tax loophole that we call the
Trump loophole – because it’s really good for Trump. It would let
millionaires and billionaires cut their tax rate in half on a lot of
their income. Under his plans, Donald Trump would pay a lower tax rate
than middle class families. Of course, we have no idea what tax rate he
pays – because unlike everybody else who’s run for president in the
last four or five decades, he refuses to release his tax returns. So
the American people can’t really judge.
And then there’s the
Estate tax, which he wants to eliminate altogether. So if you believe
Donald Trump is as wealthy as he claims – we can’t say that for sure,
but let’s assume it – he would, by eliminating the Estate tax, save the
Trump family $4 billion – and do absolutely nothing for 99.8 percent of
all Americans. Now, think of what we could do with $4 billion in Ohio.
We could build 280 new elementary schools. We could eliminate the
outstanding student loan of 166,000 Ohioans. We could provide health
care to 370,000 veterans. And we could sure rebuild every crumbling
bridge in this state and fix a lot of the highways that are causing
folks to incur expenses.
Donald Trump doesn’t need a tax cut. I
don’t need a tax cut. It’s time for the wealthiest Americans, whoever
you are, as well as corporations and Wall Street, to pay your fair share
in taxes. You have been successful in this country because of
everything this country represents. We’re going to stop giving tax
breaks to corporations that outsource jobs and profits. We’re going to
reward those who invest in their employees again. If corporations move
their headquarters overseas, we’re going to slap an exit tax on them and
try to persuade them not to move. We’re going to add a new tax on
multi-millionaires, crack down on tax-gaming and close loopholes, and
then use that money to make the kind of investments that will grow the
economy for everybody.
So here’s the bottom line. There are just
83 days in this election. I keep track of them, cross them off. And for
anyone waiting for Donald Trump to suddenly become more responsible,
remember what a great American, Maya Angelou, said: ‘When someone shows
you who they are, believe them.’ And I think it’s fair to say that
Donald Trump has shown us who he is. He can hire and fire anybody he
wants from his campaign. They can make him read new words from a
teleprompter. But he is still the same man who insults Gold Star
families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, and thinks he
knows more about ISIS than our generals. There is no new Donald Trump.
This is it. And you know, I hope you will talk to any of your friends
who are flirting with the idea of voting for Donald Trump. Friends
don’t let friends vote for Trump.
So, now, here’s what I have to
ask all of you. I’m proud that we have run a campaign of issues, not
insults. That’s what I’m going to continue to do for the next 83 days.
Because I think the details actually matter. That’s why I sweat the
details. I really care a lot about what happens to the young people and
the families and our seniors. That’s why I’m going to do everything I
can to raise the national minimum wage so that it is a living wage. I’m
going to do everything I can to make sure that you have the health care
you need at an affordable price – and get the costs of prescription
drugs down because they are once again getting out of reach.
I was
at an event the other day and a very distinguished doctor, the head of a
big hospital in New York, he said, ‘We got to do something about
prescription drug costs.’ This is not a – this is not a patient or a
family. This is one of the most distinguished doctors in New York
City. He said, ‘It’s getting to the point where I can’t prescribe
certain drugs that my patients need because the insurance won’t pay for
them. Medicare, Medicaid, nobody will pay for them because they are too
expensive.’ And he mentioned particularly a drug by Gilead that will
cure hepatitis C. And it is so expensive that a lot of Americans are
being left out. And you know what really is upsetting about this is
that drug company sells that same drug all over the world at a much
lower price to everybody else.
Now, I’m proud, I’m proud, that our
drug companies invent drugs to cure really terrible diseases and treat
chronic diseases. I’m proud of that. But let’s be clear. Your tax
dollars helped support the research that is used to create those drugs
in the first place. Your tax dollars support the Food and Drug
Administration that tests those drugs to determine whether or not they
are safe and effective to be able to go to market. And then we end up
in America paying the highest price for those drugs that we have helped
to create. We have got to take this on. And we can do it without
hurting research and discovery and new drugs and new devices.
And
there are two other issues that I want to mention respecting health
because I’ve been on the campaign trail now for, well, about a year and a
half, ever since April of 2015. So I have – I have talked with and
mostly listened to thousands of Americans. Now, people talk to me about
their jobs. They talk to me about education. They talk to me about
student loans and the high price of college. They talk to me a lot
about gun violence. They talk to me about the things that are on their
minds.
But the most emotional encounters I have are when families
grab my hand and talk to me about mental health and addiction. We have
got to do a better job. We have too many families and too many
individual Americans whose lives are being either totally undermined or
shortened because of mental health and because of addiction. So I’m
going to work on those things, too, as your president because we’ve got
to tackle these two problems.
And I also want to defend the rights
that Americans now have from all of the various attacks that people are
waging. That’s why I support human rights and civil rights. I support
women’s rights. And yes, I will defend Planned Parenthood against all
of these partisan attacks. I support gay rights. Voting rights, which
are under attack across America, including right here in Ohio. I support
workers’ rights, the right to form and organize a union and bargain
collectively. I support the rights of people with disabilities, who
deserve more chances to be integrated into the economy and society. And
yes, I will take on the gun lobby and try to get common-sense gun safety
measures passed.
And you know, I know how difficult this is. But
here’s what I want to say. I want to say what I said at the convention
in my speech. I am not at all advocating the repeat of the Second
Amendment. I am not at all advocating any program that would in any way
take people’s guns away. Here’s what I’m advocating: I want to help
you stay alive so that nobody who shouldn’t have a gun in the first
place gets one and hurts you or other people.
Because when I think
about the three big challenges the next president faces: getting the
economy to work for everybody, not just those at the top; keeping us
safe and leading the world with steadiness; and unifying America, it’s
not just a job for the president. We all have to do our part. And when
it comes to keeping Americans safe, I want to keep you safe in your own
communities and your homes from gun violence, I want to keep us safe
from terrorists no matter where they’re from or what they’re after, I
want to make sure that we keep our alliances strong. Because I know how
important it is that we work together to defeat the terrorist threat.
And I will bring all the experience I had as a senator serving on the
Armed Services Committee, as a Secretary of State, to make sure that
America remains the most free, the most safe, the most important leader
in the world.
But I also want to unify our country. You know, I
bet if we had the time, we’d find something that every single one of us
disagreed about with everybody else. We have different experiences,
different backgrounds. I think that’s part of the American DNA. You
know, our founders had some big arguments. We have a lot of impassioned
people who care about the future of our country and what we should do.
But at the end of the argument, we’ve got to come together. We are the
greatest example of freedom and opportunity and justice that the world
has ever known, and we can’t do anything that ever undermines that.
And
that’s why it is so important that we seek and find common ground
together. I did that as a First Lady. I worked with Republicans to
create the Children’s Health Insurance Program that now covers 8 million
kids, I worked with Republicans to reform the adoption and foster care
system, which I care deeply about. I worked with Republicans after 9/11
to rebuild New York and to make our country safer, to get healthcare to
National Guard men and women. I worked with every Republican I served
with, just about. I worked with Republicans as Secretary of State. We
got a new treaty with Russia to lower the number of nuclear weapons, and
that took 67 votes, and we had to get Republicans as well as Democrats
to agree with that.
I happen to believe I don’t have all the
answers. I happen to believe we are stronger together in charting a
course toward the future. So I need your help. ‘Stronger Together’ is
not just a slogan for our campaign, it is what I believe in my heart. I
will get up every day in the White House trying to figure out how we’re
going to create more jobs, more opportunity, keep us safe, unify us.
And that’s where you come in. I hope you will join this campaign. You
can do so today by texting ‘JOIN’, J-O-I-N, at 42746. Or you can go to
HillaryClinton.com. We’re hiring organizers in Ohio. So if you’re
interested in working as an organizer, see one of our people who will be
at the doors as you leave.
This is a consequential election. I
understand a lot of the concerns that many Americans have, wondering and
worrying about our country. About their lives, about their kids’
lives, about their retirement, about the purpose and dignity of their
work. So I know we’ve got challenges that we have to address. But I am
absolutely sure we can do this. I believe America’s best days are
still ahead of us. If you will join this campaign, join our cause,
together, we […] win an election, but chart a course of confidence and
optimism. Getting results for the American people. Come, join me
please. Thank you all very much.”
