Clinton and Obama on Economic Policy

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more: http://firedoglake.com/2008/02/04/clinton-and-obama-on-economic-policy/

Clinton and Obama on Economic Policy
By: Scarecrow Monday February 4, 2008 5:15 am


Two recent New York Times articles, two weeks apart, provide important insights into how Senators Clinton and Obama describe the nation's economic priorities and the role of government in the economy.

In this January 21 Times article, Senator Clinton makes clear she is focused on the need to reverse the excesses of the Bush economic and tax policies:


. . . Mrs. Clinton put her emphasis on issues like inequality and the role of institutions like government, rather than market forces, in addressing them.

She said that economic excesses — including executive-pay packages she characterized as often “offensive” and “wrong” and a tax code that had become “so far out of whack” in favoring the wealthy — were holding down middle-class living standards. . . .

“If you go back and look at our history, we were most successful when we had that balance between an effective, vigorous government and a dynamic, appropriately regulated market,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.” . . .

She added: “I want to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market.”

. . . She would roll back the Bush tax cuts for households with incomes over $250,000 while creating more tax breaks below that threshold; impose closer scrutiny on financial markets, including the investments being made by foreign governments in the United States; and raise spending on job-creating projects like the development of alternative energy. . . .

Her first priority, she said, would be changing the tax code. She has proposed tax credits for college tuition, retirement savings, health care and alternative energy use, most of which would go to lower- and middle-income families.