May 27: Hillary at the Brookings Institution telling it like it is
Our Hillary says it plain: The rich are not paying their fair share.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a rare foray into domestic politics today, offering her view that — given America’s high unemployment — wealthy Americans don’t pay enough taxes.
“The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [America currently does] — whether it’s individual, corporate or whatever [form of] taxation forms,” Clinton told an audience at the Brookings Institution, where she was discussing the Administration’s new National Security Strategy.
Now there’s someone who knows what she believes and doesn’t need to be, ahem, ‘prompted’ to say it.
You can see her make her remark, off-the-cuff, in the Q&A session at around the 57 minute-mark:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Hill makes a point to says she’s speaking only for herself and not as part of the Administration:
Clinton said the comment was her personal opinion alone. “I’m not speaking for the administration, so I’ll preface that with a very clear caveat,” she said.
But, Hillary isn’t just speaking for herself here. She’s speaking for me too, and I’m sure I’m not alone on that one.
She also cited Brazil as a model:
“Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what — they’re growing like crazy,” Clinton said. “And the rich are getting richer, but they’re pulling people out of poverty.”
When I see news like this, I hear the line from Fleetwood Mac in my head… “In the stillness of remembering… What you had, And what you lost…”
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
…and I repeat… {{{ sigh }}}
Slightly OT….
An article from the hill quoting Gov of PA Rendell:
Rendell also noted a difference between Obama’s style and that of the last Democratic president, a famous micromanager: “If Bill Clinton was president, he’d have been in a wetsuit, you know, trying to get down to see the spill,” the governor said with a laugh.
I think Hill would be there with him.
“If Bill Clinton was president, he’d have been in a wetsuit, you know, trying to get down to see the spill
Is that supposed to be a bad thing? If I had my choice between a POTUS in a wet suit and one who doesn’t give a fuck…I pick the wet suit .
no, Rendell meant it as a compliment.
Thank you! I’m glad to hear it!
And why is Rendell comparing and contrasting. Hmmmmm.
Rendell backed Hillary in the primaries, that’s why.
The big dawg would be so involved in this…
because he has his policy and his politic in the best interests for us. The little gal/guy.
Bill gets it.
Rendell was a HUGE Hil supporter and he seems to only cheer on O with tepid reaction.
Like a “good democrat”
Rendell sounds less like a “hound” and more like one of those wild pumas. 😉
perhaps, or more likely she would have been going from home to home talking to the families about how this was effecting them and what they needed done right away.
Exactly!
Great catch, Wonk! I saw part of the speech on PBS, but of course the omitted this part.
If only…..
Thanks, bb. Glad if I could help more people see it. I figured it wouldn’t get much play outside of the wingnuttery that sees socialism in their cheerios.
They omitted this part? Well, isn’t that interesting?
You’re just bitter because Hillary was beaten by an “inadequate black male.”
Actually, I’m just envious that the world stage has Hillary and what we Americans have on the national stage is a whole host of inadequate Democrats.
Hell Yes! Thanks for posting this, it’s a pickup in a funky way. Makes me want to scream “Fuck It” at the top of my lungs, again.
“Inadequate” is right!
OT– Ezra Klein says Obama will be impeached if the Repubs win majorities in Congress in Nov.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/05/here_comes_impeachment.html
Poor Ezra, he’s boo-hooing up a storm. I miss the days when Obama was the magic man and everyone would fall in love with him, we’d all work together in our glorious bipartisan utopia, and Republicans would never be able to bring themselves to touch one precious hair on his political head. 😉 Being a President who provokes and impeachment seems downright divisive, it’s almost as if we gave up a competent POTUS for nothing.
So that’s the best sell the creative classers can come up with? If you don’t vote for a bunch of sellouts with the letter D by their names, the king of the sellouts will be impeached!
Ok then. I won’t!
Not much of a sell, is it? I’m like, hell yeah, I’ll vote for the Republicans. Thanks for the idea Ez.
Good. That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while.
Amazing, isn’t she?
I am at 10 min mark and she probably looked at her papers 3 or 4 fimes. She is speaking extempore on a major national security policy announcement. Not reading from paper or teleprompt. And she goes on like this for an hour?
And her head doesn’t whip from side to side like she’s watching a tennis match either.
Have you seen her conversation with Google from 2007? She *is* amazing.
This is great, Wonk. Another great interview she did was with Jim Cramer during 08 campaign. He was throwing questions at her at a fast clip and she was coming right back with intelligent answers, not boiler plate. He got so excited because she was hitting back all his strong serves, he talked faster and louder, threw more questions, and she kept up with it. They go on like for about 15-20 min. Great video. She was so informative and so funny too. Cramer ate it up.
Her O’Reilly interview was good too and reminiscent of her comments today about taxes:
My favorite is from the 6:00 to 6:16.
Ooh, that’s pointed and Obie isn’t going to be happy. One of the major differences I see between them is that everyone, going back decades, is always trying to protect him and fluff him and hold his little hand and hand him things. With her, they’re always trying to shut her down, telling her to shut up, sabotaging her. So while he crumbles at the least little sign of adversity and compares his charmed life to major historical tragedies. But she knows from the outset that every obstacle under the sun will be thrown in her path, but it’s like, whatever, oh again, let’s get this done. Increasing taxes on the wealthy would throw the political establishment into turmoil, but I wouldn’t put it past her to get it done.
I firmly believe she would have gotten that done and a lot more. Her leadership could have made the difference in our way of life surviving. Probably why so many sold her out for the ridiculous empty suit we have.
And you wonder why the big money went prospecting for a different “identity candidate” and then threw their support to him and the kitchen sink at her…Idiot B0bots missed the point then – and still miss most of it now.
This is a great interview despite timmy. The best
part is her and Bill going to the movies.
http://still4hill.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/interview-secretary-of-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-and-secretary-of-the-treasury-timothy-geithner-with-chen-luyu-of-phoenix-tv/
House votes to repeal DADT 234-194
if we had more oil kills, would we have more urgency to move the country forward on human rights? Pardon me for being cynical, but this urgency from DC (which I welcome regardless) didn’t seem to be there before May…
Without BP’s catastrophe, we’d still be waiting on that. It’s toss the left a bone day in DC for the House.
If DADT is repealed, does the UCMJ revert back to the prior statutes? Or are they eliminating all references to homosexuality in the UCMJ?
Excellent question. I wonder if the Congress has even considered that?
Probably not. For all of it’s faults, DADT decriminalized homosexuality in the military. This congressional “stunt” now may make homosexuality a court martial offense again.
In the absence of changing the UCMJ, which is unlikely to get 60 Senate votes, Obama could issue an exec. order as CIC to halt the “findings” process of DADT. He’ll never do that, I guarantee.
This may turn out OK because I read that the bill passed by the House only allowed the Pentagon to change the regulations and remove DADT. So new regulations will apparently be written for the UCMJ. I hope!
That’s what I was wondering about. Taking away DADT without changing the millitary seems to take things back. Even since obama took office there have been soldiers discharged when they were outed.
He Was Supposed to Be Competent Peggy Noonan is funny, in a Republican kind of way. From today.
Thought we peeled off two years ago.
Never got on the O-express is more like it.
The MSM are like cockroaches… they sit comfortably in the dark and then 2 years later someone turns on the light and they start running away from right where they were all along.
Peggy N sounds like a concern troll, a little too gleefully lamenting the incompetence.
Even a blind acorn finds a squirrel once in a while.
Excellent post, Wonk.
“Half the party voted for Hillary Clinton, and her people have never fully reconciled themselves to him.”
It takes an outsider to to tell the truth we know so well. Some Democratic Obama bandwagonites know it, but cling to the bitter hope of denial that it will go away.
OMG—-thank you for sharing this. What the hell is wrong with people-she is a national treasure.
You are very welcome. 🙂
She is increasingly becoming an international treasure on top of a national one with each passing day.
Wonk this is wonderful – thank you. How could people turn their back on her?
What is going on with her hair? Growing it for a “mom style” for the wedding???
I was just thinking that I liked her hair that way!
Why didn’t BO give a direct answer to the Sestak question at the presser today. He should have said, no that is not the case. The Congressman is mistaken.
Because the WH has got lawyers still running around figuring out just how to phrase his answer.
After which it will be uploaded to the nearest teleprompter.
It’s not easy to dismiss the charge because there’s a witness: Sestak’s brother:
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) said Thursday his brother has spoken with White House officials about the congressman’s allegation that he was offered an Obama administration job if he would stay out of a Democratic Senate primary.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052705245.html
And it looks like they’ve got Bill in the middle of their “solution” 😕
Especially since they’ve sent Durbin out to demand that Sestak answer in detail.
Translation, “Deny it, say you misunderstood!”.
“Say it was a hypothetical!”
If Sestak rolls over for the WH and says “mis-spoke or taken out of context”, etc., he is as good as gone in the general election. A cave-in by Sestak would be equivalent to Martha Coakley flipping on the Health Care scam.
Yep. A roll over by Sestak is definitely a non-starter, if he wants to be a Senator.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he caves like everyone else has, tho. The entire party will declare war on him if he doesn’t. Either way he’d lose, but Jeebus. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes if O gets impeached.
Sestak is sorta between Barack and a Rand place.
Lol Too bad no one ever warned about how the Chicago Gang would deal with any Dems who wouldn’t play ball.
So goes my best hope for someone in the Senate who can still take a principled stand 😦
Love this quote in WaPo, just out now.
Lol Oy! It sounds like he thought he could drop this bombshell and no one outside PA would take a blind bit of notice, including the President (and including the in-state Repubs). Once again, welcome to amateur hour.
But didn’t Sestak use the job offer story in his political ads? I heard he did. If so, then he did a LOT more than just mention it in some obscure interview.
Backpedaling isn’t going to help him if he touted the “drop out” bribe in an ad.
Sestak never used the story in his political ads. He basically only ran two ads–both in the last month of the campaign: one was a bio ad and the other was showing Specter all chummy with Bush.
By the way, Sestak sponsored two pieces of legislation with no co-sponsors as yet: one would prohibit automatic pay raises for Congress in 2010, the other would prohibit automatic pay raises for Congress in 2011. He has also sponsored legislation to help workers living on Social Security obtain part-time jobs. He’s more conservative than I am on a number of issues, but as far as trying to help normal people, he’s the real deal.
grayslady, thanks for the info.
grayslady, I agree – Sestak is pretty decent. I hope he just tells the truth and lets the chips fall. If he does that, he’ll win the seat IMO. If he caves and covers for the administration, he’s sunk.
You can’t make this stuff up.
LOL.
Yes, faint praise.
I love how she reminds them that when Bill left office , the books were balanced and there was a freaking SURPLUS. We so rarely hear of the Clinton surplus. You can see why they just couldn’t have another Clinton in office! They leave money in the Treasury instead of passing out endless contracts to their friends…who don’t do the work of course, requiring another brace of contracts to the same people and so on endlessly .
I will you why….this is the plan….its to run this country in the ground and break it and then the people will be ready for the NorthAmerican UNion without borders. Canada to Brazil…one country.
That would be kinda cool. Are we gonna have the army invade Mexico and annex it? That’s what we did last time but we only kept half their country.
We annexed Canada back in the Seventies but we haven’t got around to telling them yet, so they still think they’re independent..
Right. It’d be kind of convenient, after all, to have the whole drug trade cycle within a single economy. Folks currently invested in oil could move their money into coca and poppy production.
By the way, go look at a map. Colombia and Venezuela are also between here and Brazil. You think Hugo’s gonna roll for your asshat scenario?
Nice post, Wonk. You’ve been on a roll!
Erica, good to see you! Thanks for reading me 🙂
Hillary 2012.
Hillary looks exhausted. Superwoman.
Houston Chronicle update on the oil kill:
There’s more at the link, with info from earlier if I’m reading the way it’s updated correctly.
Also someone left a comment there with this link elaborating on bridging material:
http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=bridging%20material
Another from the chron…. Feds lift ban on offshore drilling in shallow waters:
How did I know it was going to turn out to be bs when I heard about the ban? Gee I must be psychic.
I’m guessing it helps to have a good BS detector that’s been well-sharpened over the last two years especially.
I’ll give him one thing, he’s consistent. It’s almost as if he’s incapable of doing any good, ever.
Roseanne (yes that one) has a great comment on her blog right now:
“Obama does absolutely nothing about anything”
I’ve found that using the Costanza rule will give you a pretty good indication of what Obama is going to do.
Whatever Obama says he’s going to do, expect him to do the opposite.
Another good method is to assume in any given situation that Obama will:
1. Do what’s best for Obama
2. Do what’s best for his wealthy backers (Wall Street, health insurance CEO’s, etc)
3. Kiss up to the wealthy and powerful
4. Fuck over the rest of us.
Lot of good that longer time for response did us.
Hey, whaddaya know–over at TL, Jeralyn outed freaky squeaky as a man (Thursday afternoon thread), though squeaks pretends to be a woman. The rumor about the iPad? That turns out to be true as well. Learn something every day.
Surprise! /s
Wonderful News: Pediatricians now reject all forms of female genital mutilation
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/27/AAP.retracts.female.genital.cutting/
It gives real hope to know that the voices of us ordinary people still make a difference somewhere. And, there would be no better place for our voices to matter than when it comes to the status and rights of girls and women.
Hoooray!! I am so happy to hear this. The AAP’s policy was so mortifying and unreal. What a wonderful newstory to start off this Friday.
Too, funny, but I fell asleep listening to Hillary…it was just too long a day and zunk I went. Thanks for the post, it is always good to see Hillary doing good things.
I got an email about that and apparently the policy was beginning to be a great blunder for the AAP and I don’t think the PR spin was working out for them in the US. I think this deserves a post! All the letters and all the blogging (getting the information out) paid off!
So, Go Wimmin Folk GO! Silent NO MORE… 🙂
Tabloids: not the headlines Obama was hoping for
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/tabloids-his-mess-oil-vey-worst-spill-ever-longest-war/
Thank you for this post Wonk The Vote!
A much needed dose of Leadership Clinton! And, the AAP announcement couldn’t have been a more perfect compliment to everything that she stands for! Freedom from oppression, equality for all and the use of smart power in overthrowing ignorance!
Dylan Ratigan: Oil Spill, Govt & Corporations (Isn’t this a TV guy at MSN? That Net FLICKs ad must be paying off.)
President Obama is getting TOUGH…there is a Thirty Day Review…’scratching my head’…hemmm, the BP Oil Spill has been going on for over 30 days!?!
Sorry. I know Dylan is working hard to shape his new populist persona, and he’s saying all the right things, including the rousing dig at the end about media and journalism. But he’s a salesman, and a good one. He dishes easy to chew populism because it returns him ratings and popularity. He spent years at CNBC pumping up big finance, then morphed into someone who rails against big finance ever since the market crash. He is consistent about one thing though. He is following the money, which in media comes with ratings, which comes from viewership, both size and type, which is us.
The media, both entertainment and news, is paid for by marketing corporations who spend 150 billion annually to advertise alongside content, and cable companies who spend another 100 billion annually to bring the content to subscribers. When it comes to using the media, these marketing corporations don’t care as much about controlling the governing politics of the nation (separate media regulations) as they do about making money from consumers and subscribers. And consumers and subscribers have far more leverage on the makeup of the content (including opinion news) that they choose to watch (or object to) than people realize.
Dylan is following his consumers more than he’s following instructions from his bosses or his conscience, because that’s where the money is, that’s who ultimately pays his salary.
To be clear, I’m questioning his motives, not his current positioning. If what he says now makes sense for me, then cool. He can come along.
BP Oil Spill: Fishermen Ask How They Will Live
James Carville Slams Obama on Oil Spill: ‘We’re About to Die Down Here!’ Stephanopoulos spins
Do you all remember when CNN wouldn’t let Carville on to advocate on behalf of Hillary because he could articulate the differences so well? I recall one exchange with Simon Obama’s rep and Carville just put it all into perspective.
Oddly enough, after the primary’s they let Carville on to advocate on behalf of Obama? The latter really ticked me off, because Gov., Edward Rendell and Carville were two people that could cut through the bull and say straight up why we needed leadership like Hillary.
Of course there was one person that could advocate for Hillary and her leadership like no other and that was the late wonderful lady, congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
Hardball W/Chris Matthews, Minute-By-Minute, N.H.Primary Day
HRC took her 1999 compensation from Rose Law Firm on 12/31/1998 to avoid higher tax rates. I call super massive BS.
Just as any other middle-income person would do, given the chance.
The Clintons’ money is all post-White House, troll.
I can’t be the only one thinking that economic growth is a dead end, literally. We have to find better arguments for fairer taxation, because ultimately this one is worthless.
Well, fairness on its own is a good argument for fairer taxation. Then there is the deficit, the need for more stimulus in a potentially deflationary environment, social programs from health and education to social security, the fact that rich people and companies are parking their current bailed out richness in cash and not investing in people. She was speaking to an informed audience at Brookings, so she probably didn’t need to spell it all out.
I knew I’d get a comment like that, which is why I provided the video in the post and directed to where she said it (57 minute mark). Here is what Hillary said in context…
First here is the question she was asked:
And, here was Hillary’s response:
Hillary’s point was that fair taxation can be done without being punitive. The goal should be about more people having more opportunities to succeed, not anyone having less. I also agree with her that the rich should remember how they got there and pay it forward.
Rigid socialism is not a cure-all for every problem–but social darwinism has always been anathema to me. Hillary is talking about finding that right balance of solutions that strives toward lifting more and more of us up, rather than pushing anyone down.