At a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio today, Hillary delivered a speech
addressing broad economic plans contrasting her proposed policies to
those of Donald Trump. Look for Hillary around the 35 minute mark.
At
a speech in Toledo on Monday, Hillary Clinton outlined her vision for
corporate America as a partner in an economy that works for everyone,
not just those at the top. She proposed policy solutions that would promote an economy where our businesses, workers and consumers grow and prosper together. That
would be a stark contrast to the approach of Donald Trump, Clinton
said, who has taken corporate abuse and excess and made a business model
out of it – and who may have avoided paying taxes for nearly two
decades, while tens of millions of working families paid theirs. Clinton
added, “While millions of American families, including mine and yours,
were working hard paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing
nothing to our nation. Imagine that. Not fair. Nothing for Pell Grants
to help kids go to college. Nothing for veterans. Nothing for our
military. And you know, he has been dissing America in this whole
campaign. Right? He talks us down. He makes disparaging comments about
our country. He calls our military a disaster. Well, it’s not, but it
might have been if everybody else had failed to pay taxes to support our
brave men and women in uniform.”
As part of her longstanding
commitment to promote free and fair competition, Clinton laid out two
new policy proposals: curbing the prevalence of fine-print “forced
arbitration” clauses in contracts that prevent workers and consumers
like Wells Fargo customers from bringing legal action against companies
who have harmed them, and a new commitment to promote competition,
address excessive market concentration and reinvigorate antitrust laws
and enforcement. Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hello,
Toledo. I am – I am very happy to be here today and – I am so grateful
to have this chance to talk to you about what we can do together to have
the kind of economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
I
want to acknowledge – we have an overflow crowd in another room, and I
know they can hear us, but we’re glad they’re here. I want to thank your
Congresswoman, Marcy Kaptur, for her leadership and her grit. I want to
thank Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson. And the mayor told me there’s a young
man here who just won a boxing championship, Robert Easter. Where’s
Robert Easter? There you are, Robert Easter. Congratulations. I know
Toledo is proud of you; we all are. I want to thank Kenyetta for that
introduction. Do we have any other UAW members here?
It’s a great
day to be here in Ohio for a lot of different reasons. One is I am so
thrilled that LeBron James has endorsed me and joined our campaign. I
know – I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful endorsements over the past year
and a half. I’m grateful for each and every one of them. But I got to
say, there’s something special about this one. And it’s a real honor in
part because of why he chose to endorse me. Now, not everyone knows
this. I mean, you all know what an amazing athlete he his – MVP, winner
of championships – but he’s also – LeBron is also a dedicated advocate
for children. And this afternoon I’ll be in Akron, where he’s done so
much for the kids in that community.
It’s a deep, personal
commitment that he has that I share with him. We both believe every
single child should have the chance to live up to his or her God-given
potential. I could not be prouder to have LeBron joining our team as we
head into the homestretch.
Now, one thing I know – I’ll just say
it because I know it’s for sure – I hope to be elected president, but I
know here in Ohio LeBron will always be the King.
I was listening
to Kenyetta introduce me, and I really appreciated what she said,
because Toledo is the kind of place where people work hard, look after
one another, and yes, pay their taxes, right?
You recognize that we all have to do our part because we are all in this together, and it matters.
We
believe honest work deserves honest pay. We believe everyone should
have the right to join a strong union that will always have your back.
It’s
personal for me. I’m the granddaughter of a factory worker from
Scranton, Pennsylvania. He went to work in the same lace mill every day
for 50 years. He believed he passed it down to my dad, who passed it
down to me that if he did what he was supposed to do, he’d have a good
life and his kids would have an even better life. That is the American
dream. That is what we believe in. That’s what we’ve got to keep going
generation after generation.
And because of my grandfather’s hard
work, my dad made it to college. And then after serving in the Navy
during World War II, he started his own small business, printing fabric
for draperies.
As a young girl, I’d sometimes go to his print
plant. It was a long building, no natural light, no windows, but he had
these long tables where he’d roll out the fabric and then I’d watch him
work with silkscreens, if you’ve ever seen that. He would take the
silkscreen, he’d put it down, he’d pour the paint in, he’d take the
squeegee, go across all the way down to the end of one table, then over
to the next table, all the way back. And then if there was a second
color to be added, he would do that. He sometimes let me help with the
squeegee. That was my favorite part.
And I know he worked really
hard. He worked really hard. He believed in hard work. He passed that on
to me. He provided a good middle-class life for us. So I am proud to
stand with hardworking families all over Toledo, Ohio, and America, who
should have the same chance that I did to share in the American Dream,
which should be big enough for everybody.
Fighting for kids and
families has been the cause of my life, as Kenyetta said, when I went to
work for the Children’s Defense Fund all those years ago. And it will
be the mission of my presidency, because I want to focus on what are
called kitchen table issues, the ones that keep you up at night – like
the cost of child care, and college, and prescription drugs, and so much
else.
And that means we’ve got to create more good jobs with
rising incomes. That means we’ve got to have good schools in every zip
code. That means everybody willing to work – and I say that very
clearly; you’ve got to be willing to work – and if you’re willing to
work, you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead. That is the basic
bargain.
Now, I don’t know about you, but you wouldn’t think that
the theme of my campaign, ‘getting an economy to work for everyone, not
just those at the top’ would be controversial – and yet this is one of
the defining debates not just of this election but of our time.
Now,
I will say, most American companies – most – are run by honorable,
patriotic people who care about their employees and communities. But
there are still too many powerful interests fighting to protect their
own profits and privileges at the expense of everyone else. [Applause.]
And they are aided and abetted by the rules and incentives in our
economy who actually encourage people at the top to take advantage of
consumers, workers, small businesses, and taxpayers.
That makes it
tougher for the well-meaning CEOs to take the high road. And it gets
even harder when we don’t aggressively enforce the rules, when we don’t
enforce trade rules that allow other countries with lower wages and
standards to get an unfair leg up, when we don’t enforce rules on Wall
Street, which exerts enormous pressure on publicly traded companies to
prioritize boosting share prices in the short term over building real
value, investing in workers, plant, and equipment over the longer term.
And
let’s be honest, the tax code rewards corporations for outsourcing jobs
and their profits overseas instead of investing here in the United
States. And it is riddled with loopholes that let the rich get even
richer and make income inequality even worse. It tilts the playing field
further against small businesses that can’t afford lawyers and
lobbyists.
So with all these pressures pushing in the wrong
direction, it’s even more important that we have an election about these
very issues. Because what I know will happen – if we have an election
where we have an agenda that actually would begin to level that playing
field, we will rebuild the middle class, we will make work pay, we will
create greater opportunities for a great percentage of Americans.
Now, I know how hard this, but I think we are on the cusp, if we win this election, to be able to get these things done, right?” AUDIENCE: “Yeah.” HILLARY CLINTON: “That
means pursuing reforms that unleash the enormous positive potential of
the American private sector. We’ve got unmatched talent, innovation,
entrepreneurial spirit.
So when we work together, we can all benefit.
Now,
I believe corporations that benefit from everything America has to
offer should feel some sense of responsibility not just to their biggest
shareholders – but to their workers, to their customers, to their
communities, and yes, to our country, to the United States of America.
We have been moving off track for decades. I don’t need to tell you
that. You know it, you’ve lived it, you’ve seen it. But it is time to
get back on track.
And you can ask anybody who’s ever worked for
me or worked with me, who’s ever served with me, when I tell you I’m
going to try to do something, I will get up every single day and work my
heart out for you.
So let’s begin by making it clear that for
most businesses, America is the most important asset on their balance
sheet. This country of ours, this system of ours, the rule of law, the
opportunity to get an education and go as far as your hard work and
ambition will take you. And we created the biggest engine of economic
growth in the world, the American middle class. So when we middle class
thrives, the country thrives. And when it doesn’t, we don’t, right?
And
I’m going to use the White House and every tool at my disposal as your
president to make the case that patriotism is profitable. Standing up
for America, investing in America will pay off.
Now, we have
always had innovators and entrepreneurs who build great companies and
create real value. But we should not and we will not respect those who
get rich by cheating everybody else.
So today I want to send a
clear message to every boardroom, every executive suite across America:
If you scam your customers, exploit your employees, pollute our
environment, or rip off taxpayers, we will find ways to hold you
accountable.
But on the other side – on the other side, if you do
the right thing and you invest in your workers and your communities and
our country’s future, we will stand with you. That is the choice. Our
goal is to make it easier for everyone to do better.
Now, to understand why this is so important, consider the recent examples we’ve seen of egregious corporate behavior.
Look
at Wells Fargo. Really shocking, isn’t it? One of the nation’s biggest
banks bullying thousands of employees into committing fraud against
unsuspecting customers, secretly opening up millions of accounts for
people without their consent, even their knowledge, misusing personal
information, and then sticking customers with hidden fees. It is
outrageous that eight years after a cowboy culture on Wall Street
wrecked our economy, we are still seeing powerful bankers playing fast
and loose with the law.
And then in a category by himself, there’s
Donald Trump. Well, you may have heard that he has long refused to
release his tax returns the way every other nominee for president has
done for decades. You can look at 40 years of my tax returns. I think we
need a law that says if you become the nominee of the major parties,
you have to release your tax returns.
Now, a lot of us were
wondering, what is he hiding? It must be really terrible. Well, The New
York Times has discovered at least part of the answer. Back in the
1990s, Trump apparently lost a billion dollars in a single year on bad
investments and failing casinos. Now, how anybody can lose a dollar, let
alone a billion dollars, in the casino industry is kind of beyond me.
It’s just hard to figure. But as a result, it doesn’t look like he paid a
dime of federal income tax for almost two decades.
Now, while
millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working
hard paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our
nation. Imagine that. Not fair. Nothing for Pell Grants to help kids go
to college. Nothing for veterans. Nothing for our military. And you
know, he has been dissing America in this whole campaign. Right? He
talks us down. He makes disparaging comments about our country. He calls
our military a disaster. Well, it’s not, but it might have been if
everybody else had failed to pay taxes to support our brave men and
women in uniform.
I saw a newspaper article. A gentleman named
Steve Crouse, who owns the Glass City Café here in Toledo, summed it up
pretty well in this article. He said, ‘I would feel guilty if I didn’t
pay anything. It’s flat-out cheating the government.’ Now, my friend
Bernie Sanders was right yesterday when he said Trump reflects a
distorted view of the American people and what this country is all
about.
Trump represents the same rigged system that he claims he’s
going to change. The whole story tells us everything we need to know
about how Trump does business. After he made all those bad bets and lost
all that money, he didn’t lift a finger to help and protect his
employees, or all the small businesses and contractors he’d hired, or
the people of Atlantic City. They all got hammered while he was busy
with his accountants trying to figure out how he could keep living like a
billionaire. And all the while he was using his political connections
to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies and
extra tax breaks for his companies. In other words, Trump was taking
from America with both hands and leaving the rest of us with the bill.
Now,
he says that he’s the one who can fix things, but that is like letting
the fox guard the henhouse. Right? And here’s what I really am just
stunned by. I get stunned every day in this campaign. But here’s one of
the many things that I’m stunned by. He has put forth a tax plan that
would cut his own taxes even more. It would be like you’re paying zero.
You expect us to pay you to stay in business, all the rest of us in
America? He’d open the loopholes even wider. And according to a new
independent study, he would actually – listen to this, people, because
this is a real shocker – his plan would actually raise taxes for
millions of middle class families. And you know the people it would hit
the hardest? Are single parents, whose lives and challenges he doesn’t
care about, certainly doesn’t understand.
Now, many have likely
already spent years paying more than he did, and he now would make that
even worse. And what does he say about it? Well, did you all see the
debate last Monday? Well, in the debate – in the debate – well, then you
all know that in the debate he said it was smart to avoid paying taxes.
Yesterday his campaign was bragging it makes him a genius. Here’s my
question: What kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year?
This
is Trump to a T. He’s taken corporate excess and makes a business model
out of it. He abuses his power, games the system, puts his own
interests ahead of the country’s. It’s Trump first and everyone else
last. And there are lots of principled, law-abiding business leaders out
there who are horrified by all of this. Not a single – not a single CEO
of a Fortune 100 company supports Trump’s campaign. Think about it.
I’ve been endorsed by very successful people – Warren Buffett, Mike
Bloomberg, Mark Cuban. I loved what Mark Cuban said when he endorsed me.
He said, ‘Look, I’ve been successful.’ He actually is a real
billionaire. And you know what? He used profit-sharing to help his
employees, not bankruptcy to fire people. And when he sold his first
company, he shared the profits with his employees, and 300 of them
became millionaires. That’s the kind of business practices I want to see
more of in our country.
But here’s what we’ve got to do. Even if
Trump is like one of a kind, we’ve got to reverse the broader trends he
represents. It’s time to rewrite the rules and make this economy fair
for everyone. And today I want to briefly share with you my plan for
protecting taxpayers, consumers, small businesses, and workers. We’re
going to crack down on the worst corporate abuses and empower companies
willing to take the high road and invest in good jobs, in higher wages,
and in stronger communities.
First let’s start with protecting
taxpayers and making sure we have more fairness in the system. It is
wrong that corporations and the super-wealthy play by a different set of
rules. A Wall Street money manager should not be able to pay a lower
tax rate than a teacher or a nurse. And I’ll tell you something else.
Our largest companies should not be able to get away with paying hardly
anything at all. It is insulting when they engage in these games, like
moving their headquarters over to a foreign country – on paper, not in
reality – just to take advantage of lower tax rates. And it is
infuriating when they take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink
slips in America with the other hand.
So here’s what we’re going
to do. We’re going to close those loopholes. I’ve got a list of them
we’re going after. We’re going to make Wall Street corporations and the
super-rich start paying their fair share of taxes. We’re going to pass
something called the Buffett rule, which means multimillionaires cannot
lower rates than their secretaries and other people working for them.
We’re going to put in place a new exit tax. If companies try to leave
our country to avoid paying their fair share, if they try to outsource
jobs, they’re going to have to give back every tax break they ever
received in our country. And then we’re going to put that money to work
creating opportunities here in America.
Second, we’re going to
protect consumers. No American should ever be taken advantage of, like
thousands were, by Wells Fargo. And this isn’t a new fight for me. As a
Senator, I raised the alarm about subprime mortgages. I fought to hold
reckless managers accountable for toxic toys and household products that
threaten our kids. I introduced legislation to protect Americans’
personal data and combat identity theft. So as president, I will make
consumer protection a top priority across the entire government.
And
that starts by defending and empowering the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, which was created after the financial crisis. And the
principal person who got it created was Senator Elizabeth Warren. And
under the leadership of Ohio’s Rich Cordray, the agency has already
returned more than $11 billion to more than 15 million Americans who
were ripped off by predatory lenders, credit card companies, and others.
And it is the one making sure that the defrauded Wells Fargo customers
get their money back.
Now, I got to say I am so proud of what this
new agency has done. Sometimes people say, well, what does the
government really do? Well, there’s a lot of examples, but this is a
primary one, standing up and making sure consumers get paid back when
they are ripped off. And because of its success, Republicans in Congress
keep trying to shut it down. And Donald Trump agrees with them. In
fact, he wants to scrap all the tough new rules imposed on Wall Street
after the crisis. Well, not on my watch, Donald. We’re never going to
let that happen.
Now, instead of gutting consumer protection, we
should be expanding it. And we should build on the Dodd-Frank financial
reforms and go even further because Wall Street can never, ever be
permitted to threaten Main Street again. And the Wells Fargo scandal
sheds light on another threat to consumers that we have to address. When
the scam’s victims, people like you and me, who had accounts there
tried to sue, they were shocked to learn there was a provision in the
very fine print of their contracts that kept them from going to court to
sue the bank for being cheated. Instead, they are forced into a
closed-door arbitration process without the important protections that
you get in a court of law. We are not going to let corporations like
Wells Fargo use these fine print “gotchas” to escape accountability.
And
in fact, this is now common practice across a lot of industries – from
nursing homes, nursing homes that mistreat seniors, to for-profit
colleges that defraud students. Who reads all that fine print? I don’t.
And you get defrauded or you get mistreated, and then all of a sudden
they say, ‘Well, you can’t sue us.’ So we’re going to rein in that abuse
across everybody.
We also see a similar problem in some
international trade agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It
sets up a dispute resolution system that favors large corporations over
everyone else. It’s one of the reasons I’m against it. I’ve warned about
this for years, I’ve written about it, and I oppose TPP now, I will
oppose it after the election, I will oppose it as president – because it
is one-sided and unfair to American workers.
And what about all
those pharmaceutical companies that jack up prices for no reason? We’re
going to have to protect ourselves against that too. And when we find
unjustified spikes in the prices of longstanding, life-saving drugs, we
should slap penalties on companies trying to cheat people who need those
drugs.
And let’s finally import safe alternatives from other
countries, like Canada, and speed up approvals to get more generic drugs
on the market. And it is long past time to allow Medicare to negotiate
for better prices for drugs and get the cost down for Medicare
recipients. And I believe we should cap the amount working families pay
out of pocket every month for medicine. No one should ever have to
choose between paying the rent and filling their prescriptions.
So
let’s stand up for taxpayers. Let’s stand up for consumers. And let’s
stand up for small businesses, which create most of the jobs in America.
I take this personally because of my dad’s very small business. We need
fair rules of the road so big corporations can’t use their power to
gain unfair advantages.
Now, when it comes to bullying small
businesses, Donald Trump is the poster boy. I have heard so many stories
of contractors, and I’ve met some too, who worked for him, produced the
goods and services, and never got paid for what they were owed. I’m
talking about painters, and plumbers, piano sellers, architects, glass
installers – he stiffed them all. Not because he couldn’t pay them, but
he wouldn’t pay them. And he told them, ‘You want to get your money? Sue
me.’ My dad could never have done that. I’m just grateful my dad never
got a contract with Donald Trump, because I don’t know what we would
have done.
More than 60 percent of small businesses face payment
delays. That can cause a serious cash flow crisis. So as president, I
will explore new ways to arm small businesses with the tools to fight
back and level the playing field. Part of the problem is large
corporations are amassing so much power in our economy. Sometimes it’s
called market concentration or even old-fashioned monopolies, but either
way it threatens businesses of all sizes, as well as consumers. With
less competition, corporations can use their power to raise prices,
limit choice for consumers, cut wages for workers, crowd out startups
and small businesses.
I mean, look what’s happening right now. In
most of the country, the three largest health insurance companies in
each state control 80 percent of the market. No wonder premiums are
going up. As president, I will appoint tough, independent authorities to
strengthen anti-trust enforcement and really scrutinize mergers and
acquisitions, so the big don’t keep getting bigger and bigger.
I
want every business to compete and thrive, and then I also want to do
something else. Let’s protect and empower workers who actually drive our
economy. Everyone who works hard should be able to share in the
rewards, not just senior executives. So we’re proposing new tax credits
to encourage more companies to share profits, on top of, not instead of,
higher wages.
We need to support new organizing strategies for
employees who too often have never had the benefit of collective
bargaining. And we have to resist the assault on workers’ rights. Let’s
say loudly and clearly: ‘right to work’ is wrong for workers and wrong
for America.
Let’s also, my friends, let’s raise the minimum wage
and support the Fight for 15 so you don’t live in poverty. Let’s defend
overtime and go after wage theft. Let’s provide family leave that is
paid and access to affordable, high-quality childcare. And of course you
know what I’m going to say: let’s finally guarantee equal pay for
women.
Now, my opponent and his chief surrogates like to say I’m
playing the woman’s card. And I’ll tell you – right? – if fighting for
working families is playing the women’s card, you know what? Deal me in!
And
then finally, I’ve got a lot on my mind, but finally, we need to make
it easier for companies to invest in good jobs here at home. As
president, I will ramp up enforcement of trade rules by appointing a new
chief trade prosecutor and tripling the number of enforcement officers.
We will work with both parties to pass the biggest investment in new,
good-paying jobs since World War II. I want to direct $10 billion to
create a ‘Make It in America’ partnership to support American
manufacturing. And I want to take some of the ideas that worked when my
husband was President and we ended up with 23 million new jobs and
incomes went up for everybody.
That includes incentives like the
New Markets Tax Credit for creating good jobs in poor or remote areas,
from inner cities to rural communities ravaged – ravaged – by
hollowed-out factories, ravaged by mines that have been shut down,
ravaged by opiate addiction. It all comes down to this: When I say our
economy should work for everyone, not just those at the top, I mean it.
And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure workers are treated
like assets, not costs. And we’re going to bring back infrastructure
jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs, clean, renewable energy jobs,
innovation, technology, small business.
Now, you don’t have to
look any further than right here in Northwest Ohio. Just a few years
ago, as you heard Kenyetta say, in 2009 you were in the eye of the
storm. Jobs, homes, savings, wiped out. The auto industry on the verge
of collapse. A lot of people were ready to give up on it. Well, that
would have meant giving up on 850,000 people across this state whose
jobs were tied to the industry. Donald Trump, for one, said rescuing the
auto industry didn’t matter very much. Either way would have been
acceptable, he said. ‘We could have just let it go,’ and that’s a direct
quote from him. Everybody in Ohio who’s thinking about voting for Trump
needs to hear that. At the time of the worst financial crisis in Ohio
in 2009, he would have let you twist and fall. And for his running mate
he picked Mike Pence, an ardent opponent of the auto rescue. Well, thank
goodness the people of Northwest Ohio weren’t ready to let it go. You
never gave up. You didn’t lose faith. And now, after a lot of hard work
and sacrifice, the auto industry just had its best year ever.
But
that’s not all there is to the story because in addition to that hard
work, America, America, came to the rescue. Taxpayers like all of us,
not him but us, provided the funds for the rescue. Union workers stepped
up. Communities like Toledo came together to make it work. And now that
the industry’s back on its feet, the auto companies have a
responsibility to give back.
So I was delighted to hear that
Chrysler is doubling down on Toledo, investing $700 million here to
start building the next generation Jeep Wrangler, which could create
about 700 new good jobs. And tens of thousands of UAW workers at
Chrysler plants should see a big increase in profit-sharing payments
above and beyond wages and benefits. Now, that’s the way it’s supposed
to work, when we all help each other out. When we stand together, we are
stronger together.
So what I want you to know is if you join me
in this campaign, I will always stand up and fight for you and fight for
your jobs and fight for your families. And I guess we have about 36
days left. The election’s going to be close. Every call you make, every
door you knock, every friend you register to vote, could make the
difference. You can text ‘join,’ j-o-i-n, to 47246 right now or go to hillaryclinton.com to
sign up and volunteer. Here in Ohio you have until October the 11th to
register to vote. And there are people with clipboards around, and you
can go actually register today on your way out the door.
So we
have just over a week to register, and then early voting starts October
12th. Let’s prove – let’s prove – that the American dream is big enough
for everyone to share in its promise. Let’s prove that we’re going to
stand together, make the smart decisions that we get the economy going
and growing for everybody, not just those at the top; that we will stand
up against special privilege and special interest; that we will be
ready after this election to have an agenda that will really make a
difference here in Toledo and across Ohio. So I’m here asking for your
help, asking for your work, asking for you to be part of this campaign,
and then when we win on November 8, be part of changing our country for
the better! Thank you all and God bless you!”
