Reply #106: Clark opposes trickle down economics

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

He often speaks out against the theory. And as a Master in Economics from Oxford and a former lecturer in Economics at West Point, he has quite definite views on economic theory.

This is from a recent speech at Rider Uni, NYC:

... what I see in President Bush's economic policy is he's tilted too far in favor of promoting people with a lot of money at the expense of ordinary Americans. I'll give you an example.

I was on an airplane coming out of Little Rock and a woman right next to me- she's a young woman, attractively dressed, and, um, we were in one of these little tiny jets, so it was pretty hard not to say hello. (crowd chuckles) And she said she's to Tulsa to sell medical equipment and she was maybe in her late 20's, and so we began to talk about things. And so, it was just after the Bush tax cuts had been passed and I asked her if she understood- I said, "Did you get a tax cut?" She said, "Oh yes, I sure did." I said, "Can you (inaudible) tell me how much it was?" She said, "I think I got, you know, 30 or 40 dollars a month." I said, "Well, do you understand that some people got tens of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars out of this tax cut?" She says, "Well no, I didn't really think about that."

I said, "Do you understand what that means?" She said, "Well, we were taught in school that you have to give money wealthy people, because they're the ones that make jobs for the rest of us." (crowd chuckles) And I said, "Well, who taught you that?" (laughter) She said, "Well, our economics professor did at Southern(?) State University."

And I mean, it is a set of ideas called trickle-down economics. And, but you know I'm out there for this every day in the economy. And so I go out there to see my friends in Aspen and their house prices have quadrupled in four years. Along the North Carolina coast, and Cape Cod, on the Pacific coast, and all resort areas where people want to live house prices are way up. Some people say it's the lower interest rate, but that accounts for places across the country. I'm talking about desirable locations. What that money does is that money gets spent on high priced real estate, running up the prices. It gets put in savings accounts, and it gets used in investments abroad and luxury trips and so forth.

If you want to create jobs in this country, you gotta get ordinary people enough money to meet their basic needs. That's the way America got to be a great economy and that's what we've got to do if we're going to keep it a great economy. So, I disagree with President Bush...

transcript Rider Uni

To say Clark believes in trickle down economics is to claim exactly the opposite of what he believes and has made quite clear many times.

I honestly believe people form views on Clark based on what they think a former general would believe. Liberals of all people should be sensitive to stereotyping, but it seems there are some shocking blind spots.