This little sound bite illustrates one of the biggest problems I have with the idea of Hillary Clinton as president:
At a Democratic rally in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics,†resulted in a spectacularly odd statement.
Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.â€
She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,†the former Secretary of State said.
The emphasis is mine. Without further qualification that remark is prime idiocy. When you rule out businesses as job creators there’s only one candidate left: government. Like most big businesses government at all levels hasn’t been a net job creator for decades.
What did she mean? What does she really think? We may never know.
Update
At Bloomberg Politics it’s been pointed out that Ms. Clinton’s statement above contradicts statements in Hard Choices. Clearly, the author of Hard Choices disagrees with Sec. Clinton’s assessment.
The sort of confusion typical of people (which is the overwhelming majority) who don’t understand the dynamics and implications of a monetized/ economy. I guarantee if you were to ask Mz. Clinton where money comes from, what an economy is or how unemployment is created she’d be lost for a coherent answer.
What else did she say? I am very leery of this idea of picking out an isolated line from a speech. If she followed that up by saying that people create jobs, a riff on Romney’s speech, I think she would be on safe ground.
Steve
steve,
The context is available in the youtube video at the site that Dave links to.
Personally, think this is just normal stuff for politicians to say when talking to certain constituencies. If anything, it’s evidence that’s she’s actually planning to run since the message appeals to left wing of the Democratic party.
Also, I don’t see it as necessarily inconsistent with the quotes from “hard choices” in the Bloomberg link. I think Clinton is one of those Washington establishment figures who believes that federal policy is decisive in the economy. So if a business or corporation “creates jobs” then it’s only because of policy choices made in Washington. Business, therefore, is merely an instrument for the technocrat.
Andy- Thanks. That is two more lines than anyone else has provided. Am still skeptical w/o entire speech. I suspect that if you directly asked her if businesses create jobs she would answer in the affirmative, but qualify it by saying that other factors, including govt policy, help them to create work. Not that we are likely to see anyone commit journalism.
Steve
steve,
Likely true – just looking at her body language in the video I think she was ad-libbing and probably would make the “trickle down” argument differently if given the chance.