June 2, 2007 – In an important policy speech delivered to students at the Manchester School for Technology in Manchester, NH, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (D-NY) provided an in-depth look at the principles that would guide her administration if she succeeds in her bid to win the White House. Sen. Clinton also referenced auto mechanics, aerospace workers and specifically mentioned the Machinists Union in her speech.
Echoing populist themes previously discussed, but in far greater detail, the Democratic front runner acknowledged the lopsided evolution of globalization and how middle class workers in the U.S. are being penalized while CEO’s and foreign workers reap handsome dividends.
Clinton proposed what she described as a progressive plan to combat the assault on the middle class by global economic policies and wrongheaded economic policies. Her plan would cut back on corporate welfare and require oil companies to invest in alternative energy; eliminate incentives for American companies to ship jobs overseas; reform corporate governance rules that allow CEO’s to escape with golden parachutes while their companies abandon workers’ pension and restore financial responsibility to our own government. “It’s simply not fair that as corporate profits have skyrocketed, the percentage of taxes paid by corporations have fallen,” said Clinton.
Additional points included promoting alternatives to traditional education so jobs that require precision skills and training would not go unfilled.
“Unfortunately, for the past six years it’s as though we’ve gone back to the era of the robber barons,” said Clinton. “Year after year, this president has handed massive tax breaks to oil companies, no-bid contracts to Halliburton, tax incentives to corporations shipping jobs overseas, tax cut after tax cut to millionaires, while ignoring the needs and aspirations of tens of millions of working families.”