WASHINGTON, DC – Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; Sandra Black, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Matt Fielder, Chief Economist of the Council of Economic Advisers; issued the following statement today on the Census Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Data. You can view the statement HERE.
Summary: In 2015, household income grew at the fastest rate on record, the poverty rate fell faster than at any point since 1968, and the uninsured rate continued to fall.
Today’s report from the Census Bureau shows the remarkable progress that American families have made as the recovery continues to strengthen. Real median household income grew 5.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, the fastest annual growth on record. Income grew for households across the income distribution, with the fastest growth among lower- and middle-income households. The number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, leading the poverty rate to fall from 14.8 percent to 13.5 percent, the largest one-year drop since 1968, with even larger improvements for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and children. Meanwhile, the ratio of earnings for women working full-time, full-year to earnings for men working full-time, full-year increased to 80 percent in 2015, the highest on record. Every State has seen declines in its uninsured rate since 2013 as the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act have taken effect. Solid employment growth and robust real wage growth so far this year suggest that incomes are continuing to rise in 2016, and, building on the progress shown in today’s Census report, the President will continue to call on Congress to take steps to invest in job creation, wage growth, and equal pay for equal work.
SIX KEY POINTS IN TODAY’S REPORT FROM THE CENSUS BUREAU
1. Real median household income rose by 5.2 percent in 2015, the fastest growth on record. Median household income grew $2,798 to $56,516 in 2015, the first time that annual real income growth exceeded 5 percent since the Census Bureau began reporting data on household income in 1967. Data from 2016 so far point to further strong gains in real household incomes, which depend on employment, nominal wages, and inflation. As of August, total nonfarm job growth has averaged a solid 182,000 jobs a month so far in 2016, and hourly earnings for private-sector workers have increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, much faster than the pace of inflation (1.3 percent as of July, the latest data available).
2. The total number of Americans below the poverty line fell by 3.5 million from 2014 to 2015, and the official poverty rate fell to 13.5 percent due to the largest one-year drop since 1968. The poverty rate for children under age 18 fell by 1.4 percentage point (p.p.) from 2014 to 2015, equivalent to more than 1 million children lifted out of poverty. Meanwhile, the poverty rate for those ages 18 to 64 saw its largest one-year decline on record (-1.1 p.p.), and poverty fell 1.1 p.p. for those ages 65 and older. As noted below (see point 5), the official poverty rate does not reflect the full effect of antipoverty policies because it includes only pre-tax income and excludes the direct effect of key policies like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which is designed to include the effects of these programs but also takes into the cost of basic needs when setting the poverty threshold, decreased 1.0 percentage point in 2015, from 15.3 percent to 14.3 percent.
3. Households at all income percentiles reported by the Census Bureau saw gains in income, with the largest gains among households at the bottom of the income distribution. While real median household income increased 5.2 percent, gains were even larger in the lower half of the income distribution, ranging from an increase of 5.5 percent for households at the 40th percentile to an increase of nearly 8 percent for households at the 10th percentile. While households at the top half of the income distribution also saw increases, their gains were smaller, with an increase of 2.9 percent in the 90th percentile of household income. 2015 marked the first time real household income grew at all percentiles reported by the Census Bureau since 2006, and real income growth in 2015 was the fastest since 1969 for the 10th, 20th, 40th, 50th, and 60thpercentiles. Although the level of income inequality remains high, multiple measures of inequality—including the Gini coefficient, the ratio of the 90th percentile of income to the 10th percentile, and the share of income going to households at the top of the income distribution—fell modestly in 2015 as a result of this pattern of income growth.
4. All racial and ethnic groups saw increases in household incomes and decreases in poverty in 2015. As shown in the chart below, all racial and ethnic groups saw gains in real median household income and reductions in their respective poverty rates. Hispanic Americans saw both the largest gains in median income (6.1 percent), while Black Americans and Hispanic Americans saw the largest reductions in poverty (-2.1 p.p. and -2.2 p.p., respectively). The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which includes the effects of a number of important antipoverty programs (see point 5 below), shows a similar pattern, with all racial and ethnic groups seeing reductions in poverty.
5. In 2015, refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) lifted 4.8 million children out of poverty. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which includes the effects of a large number of antipoverty programs, is widely acknowledged to measure poverty more accurately than the official measure. Unlike the official poverty measure, the SPM measures post-tax and post-transfer resources, combining earnings with assistance from government programs—including in-kind transfers like food assistance—minus net tax liabilities and necessary expenditures on work, child care, and health care. The measure also bases the poverty line on the cost of meeting basic expenses. Together, in 2015, 9.2 million Americans, including 4.8 million children, were lifted above the poverty line by refundable tax credits, including the EITC and the CTC, illustrating their critical importance to the social safety net. Additionally, research has shown that helping low-income working families through the EITC and CTC not only reduces poverty, but also has positive longer-term effects on children, including improved health, educational outcomes, and labor force participation and earnings in adulthood. Expansions to the EITC and CTC signed into law by President Obama as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 lifted 1.0 million children out of poverty in 2013 according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; these provisions were made permanent under the bipartisan agreement at the end of 2015. The President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget includes a number of provisions to further strengthen tax credits for working families, including an expansion of the EITC to workers without qualifying children. (Note that some of these estimates rely on survey data, which research has shown tend to underreport household use of certain programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, leading to underestimates of the poverty-reducing effects of these programs.)
6. In 2015, the share of people without health insurance declined in almost every State, and all States have seen gains since 2013, reflecting continued progress under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Today’s new data from the American Community Survey (ACS) show that 49 States and the District of Columbia saw their uninsured rates decline in 2015. The uninsured rate has fallen in every State (as well as in the District of Columbia) since 2013. While the ACS is not the firstsurvey to report estimates of State-level insurance coverage in 2015, the survey’s extremely large sample size allows it to provide particularly reliable estimates.
While all States have seen increases in insurance coverage since the ACA’s major coverage provisions took effect in the beginning of 2014, the extent of those gains have varied widely by State. Notably, States that have expanded Medicaid under the ACA have seen larger coverage gains on average, particularly if they started with a larger uninsured population. If Medicaid non-expansion States had seen coverage gains comparable to those seen by Medicaid expansion states with similar uninsured rates, the uninsured rate in these states would have been nearly 3 percentage points lower in 2015, increasing the magnitude of these states’ coverage gains since 2013 by almost two-thirds.
Today’s Census release also included an estimate of the national change in the uninsured rate based on the Current Population Survey (CPS). According to the CPS, the national uninsured rate dropped by 1.3 percentage points from 10.4 percent in 2014 to 9.1 percent in 2015, bringing the cumulative gain since 2013 to 4.3 percentage points. The new data from the CPS are broadly consistent with evidence from other Federal and private surveys showing that coverage gains continued during 2015; those surveys show that gains have continued into early2016. The cumulative coverage gains since 2013 have put the uninsured rate at its lowest level ever.
Jason Furman is Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Sandra Black is a Member of the Council of Economic Advisers. Matt Fiedler is Chief Economist of the Council of Economic Advisers.
WASHINGTON, DC – Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, issued the following statement today on the employment situation in August. You can view the statement HERE.
The economy added 151,000 jobs in August following robust job growth in both June and July as the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent. U.S. businesses have now added 15.1 million jobs since early 2010, and the longest streak of total job growth on record continued in August. So far in 2016, job growth has averaged a solid 182,000 jobs a month, well above the pace of about 80,000 jobs a month needed to maintain a low and stable unemployment rate, and hourly earnings for private-sector workers have increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, much faster than the pace of inflation. Nevertheless, more work remains to sustain faster wage growth and to ensure that the benefits of the recovery are broadly shared, including investing in infrastructure, implementing the high-standards Trans-Pacific Partnership, and raising the minimum wage.
FIVE KEY POINTS ON THE LABOR MARKET IN AUGUST 2016
U.S. businesses have now added 15.1 million jobs since private-sector job growth turned positive in early 2010.Today, we learned that private employment rose by 126,000 jobs in August, following a robust average gain of 232,000 jobs in June and July. Total nonfarm employment rose by 151,000 jobs in August, below the monthly average for 2016 so far but substantially higher than the pace of about 80,000 jobs per month that CEA estimates is necessary to maintain a low and stable unemployment rate given the impact of demographic trends on labor force participation.The unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent in August. The labor force participation rate remained at 62.8 percent, the same rate as in October 2013 despite downward pressure from demographic trends. So far in 2016, nominal earnings for private-sector workers have increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, well above the pace of inflation (1.3 percent as of July, the latest data available).
As the labor market has strengthened, the share of employees quitting their jobs has recovered to roughly its pre-recession average.The quits rate tends to fall in recessions and rise in recoveries, since workers are generally more likely to choose to leave a job if there are job opportunities available elsewhere. As such, a higher quits rate is a sign of a stronger labor market. The chart below plots data from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) on both quits (voluntary separations) and layoffs and discharges (involuntary separations). The quits rate plummeted in the Great Recession as the layoffs and discharges rate rose sharply. Since then, as the labor market has recovered, the layoffs and discharges rate has fallen well below its pre-recession average, and the quits rate was near its pre-recession average as of June 2016 (the most recent data available). Nevertheless, the quits rate is still below its level in the early 2000s, part of a broader, decades-long trend ofdeclining labor market fluiditywhose causes and consequences continue to be debated by economists.
Workers in nearly all private industries have seen their unemployment rates recover and fall below their pre-recession averages.The headline unemployment rate recovered to its pre-recession average of 5.3 percent in June 2015 and has since fallen even further, holding steady at 4.9 percent in August 2016. As shown in the chart below, the impact of the Great Recession varied across industries, with mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction workers, manufacturing workers, and construction workers in particular seeing large increases in their unemployment rates. As of August, however, unemployment rates for workers in 9 of the 11 major private industries have fallen below their respective pre-recession averages. The two exceptions are education and health services workers, whose unemployment rate has essentially recovered to its pre-recession average of 3.3 percent, and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction workers, whose unemployment rate nearly recovered before increasing since mid-2014 amid falling oil prices and production (see point 4 below).
Employment in the mining and logging industry, which includes oil and gas extraction, has fallen sharply in recent months amid low oil prices.While the decline in oil priceshas benefitted consumers and the economy overall, it has weighed heavily on mining and logging employment, which has fallen by 25 percent since September 2014. Oil and gas workers make up more than half of the mining and logging industry; however, this sector represents just 0.5 percent of total U.S. nonfarm employment. The level of mining and logging employment is closely correlated with the price of oil, with shifts in employment usually following price changes, as the chart below shows. Since 2000, mining and logging employment has been most closely correlated with the price of oil eight months before, suggesting that the recent slight moderation in oil prices since the beginning of 2016 may translate into a slowdown in the pace of employment losses in the months ahead.
The distribution of job growth across industries in August was broadly consistent with the pattern over the past year, though some industries saw below-trend growth.Above-average gains relative to the past year were seen in transportation and warehousing (+15,000) and State and local government (+24,000), while mining and logging (which includes oil extraction) posted a smaller loss (-4,000) than in recent months. On the other hand, several industries, including professional and business services (+25,000, excluding temporary help services), health care and social assistance (+36,000), private educational services (+2,000), and utilities (-1,000) saw weaker-than-average growth. Slow global growth has weighed on the manufacturing sector, which is more export-oriented than other industries and which posted a loss of 14,000 jobs in August.Across the 17 industries shown below, the correlation between the most recent one-month percent change and the average percent change over the last twelve months was 0.82, in line with the average correlation over the last year.
As the Administration stresses every month, the monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and payroll employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data as they become available.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has stated her commitment to building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. Going way beyond rhetoric, sloganeering, she has put forward five major goals at the core of her vision for a stronger economy that helps us grow together:
1. A 100 Days Jobs Plan to Break Through Washington Gridlock and Make the Boldest Investment in Good-Paying Jobs Since World War II.
2. Make Debt Free College Available to All Americans.
3. Rewrite the Rules So that More Companies Share Profits With Employees, and Fewer Ship Profits and Jobs Overseas.
4. Ensure that Corporations, Super-Rich and Wall Street Pay Their Fair Share.
5. Put Families First by Making Sure Our Policies Meet the Challenges They Face in the 21st Century Economy.
Here are details from the Hillary for America campaign outlining the initiatives she is proposing to cultivate technology and innovation:
In setting forth this agenda, Hillary recognizes that technology and the internet are transforming nearly every sector of our economy—and she believes that with the right public policies, we can harness these forces so that they lead to widely-shared growth, good-paying jobs across the country, and immense social benefits in healthcare, education, public safety, and more.
Hillary laid out a comprehensive agenda for leveraging technology and innovation to create the jobs of the future on Main Street. These ideas are a core component of the jobs plan she will put forward in the first 100 days of her Administration, along with investments in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing.
Highlights of her technology and innovation agenda include:
Spurring entrepreneurship and innovation clusters like Silicon Valley across the country, by investing in incubators and accelerators, expanding access to capital for start-ups, and facilitating tech transfer to bring ideas to market.
Allowing young entrepreneurs to defer their federal student loans for up to three years, so they can get their ventures off the ground and help drive the innovation economy.
Connecting every household in America to high-speed internet by 2020, while hooking up more public places like airports and train stations to the internet and enable them to offer free WiFi to the public, and helping America deploy 5G and next generation systems that can offer faster wireless speeds and help unleash the Internet of Things.
Providing every student in America access to computer science education by the time they graduate, including through engaging the private sector to train 50,000 new computer science education teachers in the next decade.
In full, Hillary’s agenda for technology and innovation has five components, laid out below:
Building the Tech Economy on Main Street
Hillary’s technology agenda will be a catalyst for creating good jobs in communities across America. She is committed to making entrepreneurship and participation in the digital economy widely shared—across regions, across classes, and across generations.
Hillary will:
Invest in Computer Science and STEM Education by:
Providing Every Student in America an Opportunity to Learn Computer Science: To build on the President Obama’s “Computer Science Education for All” initiative, Hillary will launch the next generation of Investing in Innovation (“i3”) grants, double investment in the program, and establish a 50% set-aside for CS Education.
Engaging the Private Sector to Train up to 50,000 Computer Science Teachers: Hillary will launch an initiative to expand the pool of computer science teachers—both through recruiting new teachers into the field, and through helping current teachers in other subjects gain additional training.
Encouraging Local STEM Education Investments: Hillary’s Department of Education will support states and districts in developing innovative schools that prioritize STEM, implementing “makerspaces,” and build public-private partnerships.
Build the Human Talent Pipeline for 21st Century Jobs by:
Opening up the Higher Education and Job Training Landscape: Hillary’s College Compact dedicates $10 billion in federal funding to enable students to participate in promising new programs—such as nanodegrees, accelerated learning programs for computer coding, and online learning.
Rebooting Job Training around Industry Needs and Job Credentials: Hillary will create a grant program to support public-private partnerships to tailor job training opportunities to match labor demands in technology-driven industries.
Supporting Programs to Diversify the Tech Workforce: We must break down the barriers to full and equal participation by all groups in the 21st century economy.
Spur Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clusters like Silicon Valley across the Country: Hillary will support incubators, mentoring, and training for 50,000 entrepreneurs in underserved markets, while expanding access to capital for small businesses and start-ups.
Support Young Entrepreneurs: Hillary will allow entrepreneurs to put their federal student loans into a special status while they get their job-creating ventures off the ground. For millions of young Americans, this would mean no payments on their student loans for up to three years—zero interest and zero principal—during the start-up phase. She’ll also give innovators who start social enterprises or new businesses in distressed communities the opportunity to apply for forgiveness of up to $17,5000 of their student loans after 5 years.
Attract and Retain the Top Talent from Around the World: As part of comprehensive immigration reform, Hillary would “staple” a green card to STEM masters and PhDs from accredited institutions, and support visas that allow top entrepreneurs from abroad to come to the U.S., build companies, and create jobs for American workers.
Invest in Science and Technology R&D: Hillary will grow the research and development budgets of entities like the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and DARPA, so that we can tackle big challenges—like ensuring America continues to lead the world in High Performance Computing, green energy, and machine learning. She will also devote more resources to technology transfer, so we get ideas to market.
Ensure Benefits are Flexible, Portable and Comprehensive: As the nature of work in America changes, the government must do all that it can to update the safety net and ensure that benefits are flexible, portable, and comprehensive.
Investing in World-Class Digital Infrastructure
Hillary understands that investing in high-speed broadband and next-generation wireless is a win-win for jobs: it will put people to work in building out and upgrading our digital networks, and it will create millions of opportunities for people who can get online more easily, innovative, start companies, and sell their products. Hillary will:
Close the Digital Divide: Hillary will finish the job of connecting America’s households to the internet, committing that by 2020, 100 percent of households in America will have the option of affordable broadband with speeds sufficient to meet families’ needs.
Launch a “Model Digital Communities” Grant Program: Hillary would create a competitive grant program to give cities, regions, and states incentives to create a “model digital community” with lower cost, world-class connectivity for homes, businesses, and public spaces.
Connect More Community Anchor Institutions to High-Speed Internet: Similar to how the E-rate program, launched under President Bill Clinton, brought broadband to public schools and libraries, Hillary will invest new federal resources to hook up America’s anchor institutions—train stations, airports, and other public places—and enable them to provide free WiFi to the public.
Deploy 5G Wireless: Hillary will help foster the evolution to 5G and other next-generation systems that can deliver much faster wireless connections and support the Internet of Things, smart factories, driverless cars, and much more.
Advancing America’s Global Leadership In Tech & Innovation
Hillary’s technology policy agenda will position American innovators to lead the world in the next generation of technology revolutions — from autonomous vehicles to machine learning to public service blockchain applications. Hillary will:
Fight for an Open Internet Abroad: As Secretary of State, Hillary boldly elevated Internet Freedom to the top levels of American foreign policy. She will continue this work as President — fighting for Internet Freedom, insisting nations respect human rights online, and opposing efforts to block internet access or shutdown social media.
Promote Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance: Hillary believes that internet governance should be left to the global community of engineers, companies, civil society groups, and internet users, and not to governments.
Grow American Technology Exports: Hillary will promote access to markets for U.S. technology companies and advance Export Control Reform. She will also protect U.S. trade secrets, and resist calls for forced technology transfer or data localization.
Promote Cyber-Security: Hillary will build on the U.S. Cybersecurity National Action Plan by empowering a federal Chief Information Security Officer and upgrading government-wide cybersecurity.
Safeguard the Free Flow of Information across Borders: Hillary supports efforts like the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield to find alignment in national data privacy laws and protect data flows across borders.
Update Procedures Concerning Cross-Border Requests for Data by Law Enforcement: Hillary will seek to modernize the MLAT system, and will pursue agreements with likeminded countries for compliance with requests for data by law enforcement, in a manner that respects privacy, security and human rights.
Setting Rules of the Road to Promote Innovation While Protecting Privacy
Hillary believes the government has an important role to play in laying a foundation for broad-based innovation and economic growth—by reducing regulatory barriers to entry, promoting healthy competition, and keeping the internet free and open. She also believes we should be ensuring that these advances protect individual privacy and security. She will:
Promote Healthy Competition at the Federal, State and Local Level: Hillary believes that all governments have a role to play in laying down rules of the road that foster innovation, promote healthy competition, and protect consumers.
Defend Net Neutrality: Hillary believes that the government has an obligation to protect the open internet, and she strongly supports the FCC decision under the Obama Administration to adopt strong network neutrality rules.
Improve the Patent System to Reward Innovators: Hillary will enact targeted reforms to the patent system to reduce excessive patent litigation and strengthen the capacity of the Patent and Trademark Office, so that we continue to reward innovators.
Effective Copyright Policy: The federal government should modernize the copyright system through reforms that facilitate access to out-of-print and orphan works, while protecting the innovation incentives in the system. It should also promote open-licensing arrangements for copyrighted material supported by federal grant funding.
Commercial Data Protection: Advances in computing like the rise of “big data” and the Internet of Things is yielding transformative benefits, but raising important questions about privacy. Hillary’s approach to privacy will be to encourage high standards—and affirm strong consumer protection—through regulatory enforcement in an adaptive manner that doesn’t stifle innovation.
Protect Online Privacy as well as Security: Hillary supports creating a national commission on digital security, so that the technology and public safety communities can work together on solutions that address law enforcement needs while preserving individual privacy and security
Engineering a Smarter and More Innovative Government
Hillary believes that, beyond enabling innovation and technology-driven economic growth, we should look technology and data to improve the way that government serves the American people. Hillary will:
Make Government Simpler and More User Friendly: Hillary will make the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and other digital services a permanent part of the executive branch. She will charge the USDS with transforming the top 25-citizen facing government services. She will streamline government procurement, get rid of unnecessary red tape, and make it easier for the federal government to use innovative technology—including open source software.
Open up More Government Data for Public Uses: Hillary would accelerate the Obama Administration’s open data initiatives, including in areas such as health care, education, and criminal justice. She would fully implement the DATA Act to make government spending more transparent and accountable to the American people, improving USASpending.gov so that Americans can more accurately see how and where their taxpayer dollars are spent.
On the same day as Donald Trump, who during the primary boasted that he was not accepting outside funding so would be unbeholden to anyone, issued his first email soliciting campaign contributions, declaring it will be “the most successful introductory fundraising email in modern political history,” Hillary Clinton delivered a speech detailing why “Donald Trump Is Unfit To Manage The U.S. Economy” and then followed up with “Here’s Why, Literally” documenting Trump’s actual record.
At the same time, his sycophants – the so-called Angry Voters who are desperate to look outside the “professional political class” for a new Leader of the Free World – point to his business acumen, thinking that would somehow translate into growing the economy (which is now the strongest in the world, even at the slow pace of growth) and creating jobs (“I’m going to be the greatest jobs president God ever created,” he boasted.)
Indeed, Trump’s entire record has consisted of doing whatever it takes to benefit himself, no matter who he hurts, from wealthy stockholders, to working class people just trying to get by, to the stooges he bilked out of thousands of dollars thinking Trump University would be their ticket to riches. Trump’s entire campaign so far has been one long advertorial for his businesses – he holds his press conferences in his hotels where he actually takes reporters on tour, holds up Trump steaks (not actually Trump steaks, of course), Trump wine, Trump water. But while he singular campaign strategy has been to “brand” Clinton as “Crooked Hillary,” he has time and again been shown to be the crook, the conman. (The New York Times reports how he was mentored in his tough-guy style by none other than the attorney Roy Cohn, who worked for Sen. Joe McCarthy and later for gangsters.)
Following Clinton’s major economic policy address, the Hillary for America Campaign issued an annotated release, documenting her core proposition:
“If Donald Trump were to get behind the wheel of the American economy, he would very likely drive us off a cliff, and working families would bear the brunt of the impact of lost jobs, lost savings, and lost livelihoods.
“That’s the natural conclusion when you look at Trump’s policy proposals, his rash and reckless temperament, and his record in the private sector of doing harm to working families and small businesses. Need proof? Just this week former McCain economic policy adviser Mark Zandi released a report saying that if Trump got his way he would lead our economy into a ‘lengthy recession’ that would cost millions of jobs, reduce growth, stagnate middle class incomes, and explode the debt.”
“See for yourself how the lines from Hillary’s Clinton’s speech today compare with Trump’s record:”
A few weeks ago, I said his foreign policy proposals and reckless statements represent a danger to our national security.
Hillary Clinton: He is not just unprepared — he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability, and immense responsibility
The Briefing: Trump Literally Said All Those Things Liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous. The Chamber of Commerce and labor unions… Mitt Romney and Elizabeth Warren… and economists on the left, right and center all agree: Trump would throw us back into recession. Politico: Economists savage Trump’s economic agenda
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Does a recession sound ‘great’ to you? Does 7 million lost jobs sound like ‘winning?’ No probably, not. And yet, that’s exactly where our country would be headed under Trump’s trade policies, according to an analysis released last week.
Mitt Romney: If Donald Trump’s plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession.
Elizabeth Warren: When the economy is in this kind of trouble, calling on Donald Trump for help is like if your house is on fire calling an arsonist to come help out.
One of John McCain’s former economic advisers actually calculated what would happen to our country if Trump gets his way. He described the results of a Trump Recession: we’d lose 3.5 million jobs, incomes would stagnate, debt would explode, and stock prices would plummet. And you know who’d be hit hardest: the people who had the hardest time getting back on their feet after the 2008 crisis.
One of the leading firms that analyzes the top threats to the global economy – the Economist Intelligence Unit – comes out with a new list every month. It includes things like terrorism and the disintegration of Europe. And this month, #3 on the list is Donald Trump becoming president. Just think about that.
Politico: A Donald Trump presidency poses a top-10 risk event that could disrupt the world economy, lead to political chaos in the U.S. and heighten security risks for the United States, according to theEconomistIntelligence Unit.
The Economist: July 2016 – Trump has a score of 16 on the same list as a Eurozone breakup (15) and the “rising threat of jihadi terrorism destabilises the global economy” (12)
Every day, we see how reckless and careless Trump is. He’s proud of it
Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage in November and said that wages are too high in this country. He should tell that to the mothers and fathers working two jobs to raise their kids.
The Week: Donald Trump kicks off GOP debate by saying American wages are ‘too high’ TRUMP: Our wages are too high
He said – quote – “having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” – at a time when millions working full-time are still living in poverty.
TRUMP: I think having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country.
Back in 2006, before the financial crash, he said, quote, “I sort of hope” that the housing market crashes, because he’d make money off all of the foreclosures.
TRUMP: I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy
Over the years, he said all kinds of things about women in the workforce. He called pregnant employees – quote – “an inconvenience.”
TRUMP: Well you know, pregnancy…it’s certainly an inconvneince for a business. And whether people want to say that or not, the fact is it is an inconvenience for a person that is running a business.
He says women will start making equal pay as soon as they do as good a job as men – as if we aren’t already.
QUESTION: So if you become president will a woman make the same as a man and will I get to choose what I do with my body? TRUMP: You’re going to make the same if you do as good a job. And I happen to be pro-life. OK? I’m pro-life.
And he clearly doesn’t know how much of our growth over the last 40 years is thanks to women.
McKinsey & Company: Since women’s participation in the workforce took off, in the 1970s, their productivity has accounted for about a quarter of current GDP
And he wants to end Obamacare, but he has no credible plan to replace it or to help keep costs down. It wouldn’t be good for our economy if 20 million people lost their health insurance. And it would be devastating to all those families.
DonaldJTrump.com: On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.
What would Trump do? He said he wants to wipe out the tough rules we put on big banks.
TRUMP: Dodd-Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function…[My plan] will be close to dismantling of Dodd-Frank.
He said they created – quote – “a very bad situation.”
TRUMP: The regulators under Dodd-Frank have made it virtually impossible for the banks to lend money to those people, which is a very bad situation to be in.
He also wants to repeal the new consumer watchdog that Senator Warren helped create to protect families from unfair and deceptive business practices. That new agency has already secured billions of dollars for people who’ve been ripped off. He wants to get rid of it.
TRUMP: On repealing Dodd-Frank, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: “absolutely”
Donald Trump would take us back to where we were before the crisis. He’d rig the economy for Wall Street again.
TRUMP: [My plan] will be close to dismantling of Dodd-Frank.
And his tax plan sure lives up to the name. According to the independent Tax Policy Center, it would increase the national debt by more than 30 trillion dollars over 20 years. That’s “trillion” with a “t.”
Tax Policy Center: Trump’s plan “would add $11.2 trillion to the national debt by 2026 and $34.1 trillion by 2036”
It’s much, much more than any nominee of either party has ever proposed.
Estimates of reducation of federal revenues under Republican candidates’ tax plans:
And how would he pay for all this debt? He said, quote, “I would borrow, knowing if the economy crashed, you could make a deal. It’s like, you know, you make a deal before you go into a poker game.”
TRUMP: I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed you could make a deal. And if the economy was good it was good so therefore you can’t lose. It’s like, you know, you make a deal before you go into a poker game, and your odds are so much better.
The full faith and credit of the United States is something we can just gamble away. That would cause an economic catastrophe worse than anything we experienced in 2008.
Michael Strain, economics fellow at American Enterprise Institute: When asked about Trump’s suggestion to default on the debt: “There are no merits to it. The extent to which U.S. Treasurys are kind of the foundation on which the global financial system is built is really hard to overstate.”
You don’t have to take it from me. Ronald Reagan said, “We have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.”
President Ronald Reagan: The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility—two things that set us apart from much of the world.
Maybe Donald feels differently because he made a fortune filing bankruptcies and stiffing his creditors.
New York Times: How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions
Boston Globe: The Atlantic City savior who came up snake eyes
Trump also says, we can just print more money to pay our debt down
TRUMP: You never have to default because you print the money
The American dollar is the safest currency on the planet. Why would he want to mess with that?
PolitiFact: The current system has secured the United States’ position as the world’s safest harbor for global money
Finally, the Trump campaign said that, if worst came to worst, we could just sell off America’s assets.
Trump senior campaign advisor Barry Bennett: The United States government owns more real estate than anybody else, more land than anybody else, more energy than anybody else. We can get rid of government buildings we’re not using, we can extract the energy from government lands, we can do all kinds of things to extract value from the assets that we hold.
First, really? And second, even if we sold all our aircraft carriers and the Statue of Liberty – even if he let some billionaire turn Yosemite into a private country club – we still wouldn’t even get close. That’s how much debt he’d run up.
Government Accountability Office: The federal government’s reported assets totaled about $3.2 trillion as of September 30, 2015.
Washington Post: Trump’s nonsensical claim he can eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years
Maybe this is what he means when he says “I love playing” with debt.
TRUMP: I do love debt. I love debt. I love playing with it.
He’d give millionaires a three-trillion-dollar tax cut. Corporations would get two trillion dollars. He’s giving more away to the 120,000 richest American families than he would to 120 million hard-working people.
Now, before releasing his plan, Trump said, “Hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.” And, “They’ll pay more.”
TRUMP: Hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.
TRUMP: The hedge fund guys won’t like me as much as they like me right now. I know them all, but they’ll pay more.
Then his plan came out. And it actually makes the current loophole even worse. It gives hedge-fund managers a special tax rate that’s lower than what many middle-class families pay. I had to look twice because I didn’t believe it. Under Donald Trump’s plan, these Wall Street millionaires will pay a lower tax rate than many working people.
Josh Barro, New York Times: The usual fee structure for a hedge fund is called “2-and-20”: a flat management fee (often 2 percent) on all assets, plus a performance fee (often 20 percent) on profits above a set threshold. Currently, the management fee is taxed at ordinary rates up to 39.6 percent, while the performance fee enjoys a preferential rate of 23.8 percent. Under Mr. Trump’s plan, all this income would be taxed at a maximum of 25 percent. The performance fee would be subject to a small tax increase, but that effect would be dwarfed by the large tax cut on ordinary management fees
Tax Policy Center: The highest-income 1.0 percent would get an average tax cut of over $275,000 (17.5 percent of after-tax income), and the top 0.1 percent would get an average tax cut worth over $1.3 million, nearly 19 percent of after-tax income. By contrast, the lowest-income households would receive an average tax cut of $128, or 1 percent of after-tax income. Middle-income households would receive an average tax cut of about $2,700, or about 5 percent of after-tax income.
And of course, Donald himself would get a huge tax cut from his own plan. But we don’t know exactly how much – because he won’t release his tax returns.
TRUMP: There’s nothing to learn from them TRUMP: It’s none of your business, you’ll see it when I release. But I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible
Every major presidential candidate in the last four decades has shown the American people their taxes.
Washington Post: Trump “would be the first major-party nominee in 40 years to not release his returns.”
Donald actully told Mitt Romney to do it.
TRUMP: On Romney’s tax returns: “I think it probably be better off just to release them now”
And he said that if he ever ran for President, he’d release his.
TRUMP: If I run, you’ll see what a great job, because I’ll do a full disclosure of finances. … Maybe I’m going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate… I’d love to give my tax returns
TRUMP: Said he would “certainly” release his tax returns, saying he had “no objection” to the idea
What’s he afraid of? That we’ll learn he hasn’t paid taxes on his huge income? We know that happened for at least a few years – he paid nothing, or close to it.
Politico: Trump appears to have paid no taxes for two years in early 1990s
Daily Beast: New Evidence Donald Trump Didn’t Pay Taxes
PolitiFact: Public records show that Trump did not pay federal income taxes in two years — 1978 and 1979
Or maybe he isn’t as rich as he claims…
Fortune: Why Donald Trump’s Tax Returns May Prove He’s Not That Rich
or hasn’t given away as much as he brags about.
Washington Post: Missing from Trump’s list of charitable giving: His own personal cash
The Republican primary featured the Trump immigration plan: round up and deport more than 11 million people – almost all of whom are employed or are children going to school – then build a wall across our border and force Mexico to pay for it.
TRUMP: We have many illegals in the country, and we have to get them out
CNN: Trump has called for deporting all of the undocumented immigrants in the United States
TRUMP: I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.
This policy is both un-American and very bad economics. Kicking out 11 million immigrants would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and it would shrink our economy significantly. Some economists argue that just this policy alone would send us into a Trump Recession.
American Action Forum: The federal government would have to spend roughly $400 billion to $600 billion to address the 11.2 million undocumented immigrants and prevent future unlawful entry into the United States.
Interestingly, Trump’s own products are made in a lot of countries that aren’t named America. Trump ties are made in China; Trump suits, in Mexico;
WALLACE: Your Trump Collection clothing line, some of it is made in Mexico – TRUMP: It’s true. WALLACE: — and China. TRUMP: That’s true.
CNN: Donald Trump suits and ties are made in China
Trump furniture, in Turkey;
Trump Home Press Release: The entire production process, from the moment the raw wood is cut until the product is finished or upholstered, occurs in Dorya’s Izmir, Turkey.
Just the other day, he told a crowd that America is – quote – “not going to survive.”
TRUMP: It’s amazing that our country can continue to survive, but you know? Eventually it’s not going to survive. Just so you understand. Eventually it’s not.
The King of Debt has no real plan for making college debt free or addressing the student debt crisis that has people in their 40s and 50s still paying off loans.
Trump campaign Co-Chair Sam Clovis: When asked whether Trump would have a plan to ensure debt-free college: “Unequivocally no…It’s absurd on the surface.”
He has no credible plan for rebuilding our infrastructure, apart from his wall.
No ideas for how to strengthen Medicare and expand Social Security – in fact, his tax plan would endanger them.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Under [Trump’s] plan, balancing the budget in 2026 would require cutting all government programs — including Social Security, Medicare and defense — by about two-fifths if all programs were cut by the same percentage. Balancing the budget without cutting Social Security, Medicare, and defense would require eliminating essentially the rest of government under both plans.
No real strategy for creating jobs, just a string of empty promises.
TRUMP: We’re going to save that coal industry, believe me.
Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy: The U.S. coal industry has been in structural decline for decades, recently driven by things like weak global demand and cheap natural gas. And eliminating environmental rules protecting air and water is not going to bring those jobs back.
Maybe we shouldn’t expect better from someone whose most famous words are, “You’re fired.”
He has no clean energy plan, even though that’s where many of the jobs of the future will come from and it’s the key to a safer planet. He just says that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.
TRUMP: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive
TRUMP: Obama’s talking about all of this with the global warming and … a lot of it’s a hoax. It’s a hoax. I mean, it’s a money-making industry, okay? It’s a hoax, a lot of it.
And he has no plan for helping urban and rural communities facing entrenched poverty and neglect.
Donald Trump says he’s qualified to be president because of his business record.
TRUMP: I’ve been a world-class businessman…That’s the thinking that our country needs
A few days ago, he said, quote, “I’m going to do for the country what I did for my business.”
TRUMP: I’m going to do for the country what I did for my business.
He’s written a lot of books about business – but they all seem to end at Chapter 11.
PolitiFact: Trump’s four bankruptcies were Chapter 11 reorganizations
Over the years, he intentionally ran up huge amounts of debt on his companies and then defaulted. He bankrupted those companies – not once, not twice, but four times.
New York Times: His casino companies made four trips to bankruptcy court, each time persuading bondholders to accept less money rather than be wiped out.
Hundreds of people lost their jobs.
Chris Wallace: In that case alone lenders to your company lost over $1 billion and more than 1,100 people were laid off.
Shareholders were wiped out. Lenders lost money.
Forbes: In the case of his casinos, Trump has screwed his shareholders three consecutive times by wiping out their investment.
Contractors – many of them small businesses – took heavy losses. Many went bust. But Donald Trump always came out fine.
USA Today: Trump [offered] as little as 30 cents on the dollar to some of the contractors
New York Times: Triad Building Specialties nearly collapsed when Mr. Trump took the Taj into bankruptcy.
Here’s what he said about one of those bankruptcies: “I figured it was the bank’s problem, not mine. What the hell did I care?”
TRUMP: I figured it was the bank’s problem, not mind. What the hell did I care?
Just look at what he did in Atlantic City. He put his name on buildings – his favorite thing to do. He convinced other people that his properties were a great investment, so they would go in with him. But he arranged it so he got paid no matter how his companies performed. So when his casino and hotel went bankrupt because of how badly he mismanaged them, he still walked away with millions. Everyone else paid the price. Today, his properties are sold, shuttered or falling apart. So are a lot of people’s lives.
New York Times: How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions
USA Today: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills
And here’s what he says about that: “Atlantic City was a very good cash cow for me for a long time.”
TRUMP: Atlantic City was a very good cash cow for me for a long time.
Those promises you’re hearing from him at his campaign rallies? They’re the same promises he made to his customers at Trump University. Now they’re suing him for fraud.
CNN: Donald Trump still battling lawsuits from defunct Trump University
Fortune: How Bad Are the Charges Against Trump University? Really Bad
The New Yorker: Trump University: It’s Worse Than You Think
The Daily Beast: Maddings, an ex-marine now 32, who told The Daily Beast that he racked up around $45,000 in credit card debt to buy Trump University seminars and products. … “It was a con. I’m 25-years-old, barely making $3,000 a month and they told me to increase my credit limit. I just maxed out three credit cards and I’m supposed to be able to qualify for loans to buy real estate? Those stupid principles have led me to borrow $700,000 of other people’s money and lose it all. I’m still paying off some of that debt to this day.”
He’s been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits in the past 30 years.
USA Today: Trump’s 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee
A large number were filed by ordinary Americans and small businesses that did work for Trump and never got paid – painters, waiters, plumbers – people who needed the money, and didn’t get it – not because he couldn’t pay them, but because he could stiff them.
USA Today: At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters.
USA Today: Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, in South Florida, has been waiting more than two years to get paid for his work at the Doral. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump’s course, then filed a lawsuit asking a Florida judge to intervene.
Sometimes he offered them 30 cents on the dollar for projects they had already completed.
USA Today: Trump [offered] as little as 30 cents on the dollar to some of the contractors
Hundreds of liens have been filed against him by contractors, going back decades. They all tell a similar story: I worked for him, I did my job, he wouldn’t pay me what he owed.
USA Today: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills
He says, he’s a businessman, and this is what businessmen do.
TRUMP: Every major business leader, has used the – I never went bank bankrupt, by the way, as you know, everybody knows. But – hundreds of companies, hundreds of deals, I used the law four times and made a tremendous thing. I’m in business. I did a very good job.
Well, CNN pointed out that no major company has filed Chapter 11 more often in the last 30 years than Trump’s casinos.
CNN: No major U.S. company has filed for Chapter 11 more than Trump’s casino empire in the last 30 years
Now imagine Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office the next time America faces a crisis. Imagine him being in charge when your jobs and savings are at stake. Is this who you want leading us in an emergency?
TRUMP: Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!
At a rally in Blackwood, New Jersey, Hillary Clinton criticized Donald Trump for his reckless tax plan that would hand trillions in tax breaks to billionaires and corporations at the expense of working families and seniors. Clinton also questioned why Trump refuses to release his own tax returns – a standard disclosure that’s been made by every major presidential candidate in the last forty years.
“He has released what he calls his tax plan, and it very clearly is his plan, because Donald Trump’s tax plan was written by a billionaire for billionaires,” Clinton said. “He wants to spend $3 trillion – that’s with a T – $3 trillion on tax cuts for people like him who make over a million dollars. That is $100,000 every month for multi-millionaires. Now, to put that in perspective, $3 trillion is enough money to make Social Security and Medicare solvent for the next 75 years. It’s enough money to put millions of Americans to work to repair and modernize all of our country’s infrastructure up to world-class standards…
“Now, think about this. The typical family in America earns $54,000 a year. It would take that family 24 years of work to earn what Donald Trump’s tax plan will hand out to people like him in just one year. That is no way to create good jobs with rising incomes for the vast majority of Americans, is it? And the gentleman who called out, what about his tax plan, I hope you’ll keep asking that.
“And what about his taxes? So we’ll get around to that, too, because when you run for president, especially when you become the nominee that is kind of expected. My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns. We got eight years on our website right now. So you got to ask yourself, why doesn’t he want to release them? Yeah, well, we’re going to find out.”
Clinton has released her tax returns every year since 1977. The last eight years of Clinton’s tax returns are available on her website, here
Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, participated in a Hillary for America press call to criticize how Donald Trump’s economic policies are too big a risk for American women and families. From his plan to give massive tax breaks to millionaires to his opposition to a federal minimum wage floor, Donald Trump is the wrong choice for women and families, they insisted.
“Make no mistake: Trump’s divisive comments about women’s health are a direct threat to our dignity and economic security. But these ideas are not the only risk a Trump presidency would pose for the economic future of women and families around this country,” said Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Trump’s tax plan “gives $3 trillion to millionaires, that’s enough to make Social Security and Medicare solvent for 75 years. Women, who rely disproportionately on Social Security, can’t afford such an irresponsible giveaway.”
Donald Trump still opposes raising the minimum wage because he has maintained, “wages are too high,” and recently said he doesn’t favor a federal floor for the minimum wage, which could leave many workers subject to a lower minimum wage. At a time when two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women, this issue is critical to working families.
The trillions in tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and corporations laid out in Donald Trump’s tax plan would be an enormous boon for the top one percent of earners, made at the expense of working families, seniors and the health of our economy. His plan would give $3 trillion over 10 years or more than 35% of its tax breaks to millionaires. That giveaway represents enough money which could go to ensure Medicare and Social Security’s solvency for the next 75 years, repair our ailing infrastructure, or raise every person now living in poverty up to the poverty line. Trump would give multi-millionaires in the top 0.1% like himself a raise of $1.3 million a year, or $100,000 a month, Tanden noted.
They offered a clear contrast between Donald Trump’s tax plan “by a billionaire for the billionaires” and Hillary Clinton’s plan, including calling for limiting child care expenses to 10% of income.
“I’m with Hillary because I know that she’s the only candidate who will make fighting for women and families her priority. I’ve worked with her on the macro issues, and I’ve worked with her on the macaroni and cheese issues, and I know she will be a great president. She’s already a great champion for women. The presumptive Republican nominee offers a different vision,” said Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Clinton has continually maintained ““Women’s issues are family issues, economic issues, and crucial to our future competitiveness.
“Too often, these are called women’s issues. Well, I am a proud lifelong fighter for women’s issues, because I firmly believe what’s good for women is good for America. … As far as I’m concerned, any issue that affects women’s lives and futures is a women’s issue.”
Clinton has pledged to:
Ensure equal pay for women.
Defend women’s health and reproductive rights against attacks.
Fight for paid family leave and affordable child care.
America has taken tremendous strides when it comes to expanding opportunity for women—but our fight is far from over. Women still earn less than men on the job. Many women still face barriers to entering and advancing in the workforce, and the ability of women to make their own health decisions is under assault. Hillary believes that issues that affect women’s lives are not just “women’s issues”—they are family issues, they are economic issues, and they are crucial to our future competitiveness. She has been fighting for women and girls her entire career, and she’s just getting started.
Work to close the pay gap.Women earn less than men across our economy—and women of color often lose out the most. Hillary will promote pay transparency across the economy and work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act—a bill she introduced as senator—to give women the tools they need to fight workplace discrimination.
Fight for paid family leave.No one should have to choose between keeping their job and taking care of a sick family member, and no parent should have to go back to work right after they welcome their newborn baby. A quarter of all women in America return to work within ten days of having a child because they have no paid leave. The United States is the only country in the developed world without guaranteed paid leave of any kind. That has to change.
Make quality, affordable childcare a reality for families.We need to recognize that quality, affordable child care is not a luxury—it’s a growth strategy. Women are now the primary or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of families with children. But out-of-pocket child care costs have soared by nearly 25 percent during the past decade. We need to make investing in child care a national priority—including supporting on-campus child care and scholarships to meet the needs of the nearly 5 million American college students who are also parents.
Increase the minimum wage.The current minimum wage isn’t enough for Americans to meet their basic needs. Because women represent nearly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers, many women are living that reality every day. A higher minimum wage will help close the gender pay gap, lift millions of women out of poverty, and have a ripple effect across our economy. While we work to raise the federal minimum wage, Hillary will also support state and local efforts to go above the federal floor.
Defend and enhance Social Security.Hillary believes Social Security is an American success story. She is committed to defending it from Republican attacks and enhancing it to meet new realities—especially for women. The poverty rate among widowed and divorced women who are 65 years or older is nearly 70 percent higher than for the elderly population as a whole. This unacceptably high poverty rate is partly due to an unfair policy: Two-breadwinner families can face steep reductions in their benefits when a spouse dies. It’s time to change that.
Protect women’s health and reproductive rights.Women’s personal health decisions should be made by a woman, her family, and her faith, with the counsel of her doctor. Hillary will stand up to Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, which would restrict access to critical health care services, like cancer screenings, contraception, and safe, legal abortion. She will fight to protect the Affordable Care Act, which bans insurance companies from discriminating against women and guarantees 47 million women and counting access to preventive care.
Confront violence against women.One in five women in America is sexually assaulted while in college. Twenty-two percent of women experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. American women are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other high-income countries. It’s time to address violence against women—and Hillary will put forward bold plans to do that.
Promote women’s rights around the globe.As secretary of state, Hillary made it a priority to advance the rights of women and girls around the globe. In far too many parts of the world, women are still held back by social, economic, and legal barriers. One in every three girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18, and laws in 79 countries still restrict the type of work women can do. Hillary knows these laws hold societies back, and that promoting gender equality around the world—from ensuring that girls have equal access to education, to making women safe from sexual violence, to promoting equal economic opportunity—will promote a more just, secure, and prosperous global community.
Clinton has a record of fighting for women and girls throughout her career:
After graduating from Yale Law School, Hillary chose not to take a prestigious job at a law firm. Instead, she became an advocate for women, families, and children. She went to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, where she helped expand access to education for children with disabilities.
As first lady of Arkansas, she helped start Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.
As first lady of the United States, Hillary was a staunch advocate for women and children’s issues. She led the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where she proclaimed that “women’s rights are human rights.” She also advocated for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides leave for new parents or those with a sick loved one, and she worked to increase funding for child care.
As senator from New York, Hillary championed access to emergency contraception and voted in favor of strengthening a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. She also championed the Paycheck Fairness Act and co-sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in an effort to achieve equal pay and help close the wage gap. She fought for legislation to guarantee paid sick leave and paid parental leave for all federal employees.
As secretary of state, Hillary made women’s rights a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. She created the now-permanent position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues and helped launch the first U.S. strategy on women, peace, and security. She also advanced women’s economic empowerment, championed programs to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and spearheaded public-private partnerships to improve the status of women and girls.
