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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Clinton Blasts Tax-Break Scheming at Ohio Rally

CLEVELAND (CN) - Drawing thousands at an Ohio rally, Hillary Clinton had tough words Wednesday for her Republican opponent's plan to give tax breaks to rich business owners like himself.

Donald Trump has called to slash income taxes across the board, but Clinton questioned why the plan includes breaks for "pass-through" business entities like limited partnerships, limited liability corporations and S corporations.

Calling the proposal the "Trump loophole," Clinton said it would result in substantial tax breaks for the rich.

A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that more than two-thirds of pass-through-business income flows primarily to the wealthiest Americans, a class that includes Trump.

And indeed the reality star's financial disclosure reflects that such businesses make up a large portion of his financial holdings.

"Donald Trump doesn't need a tax cut," Clinton told the crowd of 2,000 gathered at John Marshall High School.

"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 of taxes."

In contrast to Trump's plan, Clinton said she would impose a 4 percent "fair-share surcharge" on Americans making more than $5 million per year. The former secretary of state's campaign website notes that the tax would implicate only 0.02 percent of taxpayers.

Clinton said America can use the tax on multimillionaires and corporations to make infrastructure investments, like connecting all homes and businesses to broadband Internet, and creating a modern electric grid capable of distributing clean renewable energy.

In addition to making the U.S. economy more competitive, Clinton said, these investments create more job opportunities.

Clinton pointed to independent analyses by Moody's Analytics of both candidates' economic proposals.

Moody's found that Clinton's proposal would create at least 10 million new jobs in her first term, while Trump's proposals and tax breaks would cost the U.S. economy 3.4 million jobs.

Clinton also pledged to do everything in her power to raise the national minimum wage, to make sure that everyone has the health care they need at an affordable price, and to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

"I'm proud that our drug companies invent drugs that cure really terrible diseases and treat chronic diseases," Clinton said. "But let's be clear, your tax dollars help 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 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."

Clinton also vowed to defend Planned Parenthood, which recently won an injunction blocking efforts by Ohio's Republican-controlled Legislature to defund facilities that provide women with legal abortions.

"And yes," Clinton told the crowd, "I will take on the gun lobby."

But Clinton denied Trump's repeated claims that her goal is to "abolish the Second Amendment."

"I am not, at all, advocating the repeal of the Second Amendment," Clinton told the crowd. "I am not, at all, advocating any program that would in any way take people's guns away."

Echoing points from her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Clinton went on to say that she wants to make sure that people who shouldn't have a gun are not able to obtain one in the first place.

The Democrat's campaign website lists expanding background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, the severely mentally ill, and other violent criminals as measures she would support as president.

Clinton closed her speech outlining the three big challenges that she foresees for the next president: getting the economy to work for everybody, not just those at the top; keeping Americans safe, and leading the world with steadiness; and, lastly, unifying the country.

"We have different experiences, different backgrounds," Clinton said. "I think that's part of American DNA. 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."

Clinton worked throughout her 33-minute speech to show that Trump is not the man for the job.

"He can hire and fire anybody he wants from his campaign," Clinton told the crowd, referencing the recent shakeup at Trump campaign headquareters.

Just this week Trump hired Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen Bannon as his campaign CEO and Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager.

The appointments were announced shortly after The New York Times reported that Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was listed as a recipient of undisclosed cash payments in the handwritten ledgers of Ukraine's pro-Russian political party, the Party of Regions.

Manafort has denied receiving any such payments.

"For anyone waiting for Donald Trump to suddenly become more responsible," Clinton told her supporters, "remember what the great American Maya Angelou said. 'When someone shows you who they are, believe them.'"

Clinton scoffed at Trump's recent attempts at staying on message through the use of scripted speeches and teleprompters — practices he mocked during the early primaries.

"They can make him read new words from a teleprompter," Clinton said. "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," Clinton said. "This is it."

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