Clinton: Unfair that fund managers pay lower tax rate than truckers

[onehandle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton blasted executive pay and tax rates for hedge-fund managers on Tuesday, using the first stop of her low-key campaign rollout in Iowa to highlight her promise to help Americans struggling toward economic recovery.

Clinton, who launched her 2016 White House bid on Sunday, held a roundtable discussion with a small group of students and educators and said she wants to "begin a conversation" with Americans on the road to the election.

"There is something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days," Clinton said, perched on a stiff metal chair in the automotive shop of a community college.

Some hedge fund managers and private equity firm partners, among the wealthiest financiers on Wall Street, benefit from a tax code loophole that lets them pay the capital gains tax rate, which is lower than the ordinary tax rate, on large portions of their incomes.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-usa-election-clinton-idUSKBN0N52FI20150414

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Great soundbite. What are the specific policy changes she is planning to implement

if elected to change that?

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. How about WE give President Clinton a willing Congress and Senate to find out how!

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Possibly a Senate

But no goal on the House in 2016. And even if we did give her the Senate to work with - we'll have Schumer working against us.

There are 'Gettable Gets' for the Democratic Party - this simply isn't one of them.

[hollowdweller]

31. Depends on the politics don't you think?

If Clinton and the dems make a big enough stink about it can the GOP really oppose it?

I mean we have Warren saying "The System Is RIGGED" if we have Clinton and the dems using this as an example I can see how the enough republicans might be dragged along.

[VanillaRhapsody]

38. Yes its called Math....

[Cosmic Kitten]

8. The excuses begin... Congress won't cooperate!

Since it is unlikely Democrats
will win Congress, then what?

What is Hillary's plan
to help win Congress?

Without the Senate, NO SCOTUS!
If you don't have the Senate
YOU DON'T get to seat justices
on SCOTUS.

SOOOO what is THE plan
to win the Senate?
What will Team Hillary be doing
to ensure her coattails carry the day?

Name the Senators that Hillary
is supporting to win the needed
seats to gain the majority.

[VanillaRhapsody]

11. You understand how American government works right?

Until we have at least 2 of the 3 branches of Government....systemic change is not possible....its just how it works.

[Cosmic Kitten]

14. How will Hillary help win the Senate?

How will Hillary's coattails
carry candidates to victory?

[QuestionAlways]

32. So what is your problem?

What do you want her to do? I am sure she will campaign with our candidates or the House and Senate, she can not appoint them and has no control if people elect them.

[hollowdweller]

34. OK so we have Clinton talking about this.

Then we have Elizabeth Warren who gets LOTS of news coverage saying "The System IS Rigged"

Then we have people like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich on news shows talking about it.

Then we have to have the potential dem candidates talking about it.

It's not rocket science. We can do it. Dems just have to work together to do it.

I think if the party draws a clear line on the middle class with the GOP and has policy showing it they have a good chance of retaking congress.

[VanillaRhapsody]

39. Reich has endorsed Hillary by the way....

You are right its not rocket science....its simple Math. We cannot effect that kind of systemic change unless we control the House and or the Senate too. They now decide what gets debated on the floor.

[Cosmic Kitten]

36. Why do I have a "problem"?

I would like to see her
"CHAMPION" some candidates
so the Democrats can win
back Congress.

If she has no coattails,
she can't change Congress
AND then she can't be a
"CHAMPION" for the public.

A president without the Congress
cannot do much of anything to
change public policy.

What is Hillary's plan
to win the Congress?
Or at least the Senate...
SCOTUS!!!11!11!1

[VanillaRhapsody]

40. She can "champion" them till the cows come home....

unless WE get off our duffs and elect them....its pointless.

You want Hillary's plan? Then I suggest you pay attention to what she is saying going forward...

[Cosmic Kitten]

42. So who or what is the PLAN?

I'm asking here and now
what is the PLAN to win Congress?

We don't need a self-serving candidate.
We need a party leader, who can help
win down ballot races.

Does Hillary have any coattails?
Who has Hillary helped win a seat in Congress?

2016 need to be an OVERWHELMING
victory for Democrats... can Hillary deliver?

[VanillaRhapsody]

43. Get Out the Vote....

its always THE plan...

When we vote....WE win!

"self serving candidate"? OMG....that would be Republicans....thanks for your concern!

[Cosmic Kitten]

44. So there is no plan?

Should I send money too?
Or just go vote?

Who are we voting for?
And why?

Is this the "plan" to mobilize
the base Go Vote!?!

There is no reason to GOTV
aside from "Hillary or Republicans"!!!111!11!

Pathetic.

[VanillaRhapsody]

45. The Plan is to vote....

We outnumber them.....its simple Math!

At the very least...go vote....and take someone with you.

[Cosmic Kitten]

46. Why? Because (D)?

You keep saying "WE"

I don't see how "we"
are in the same boat,
at all...
Except (D)

Is this the best "we"
can expect from the campaign?

[VanillaRhapsody]

47. why?

Because WE!


My grandmother who voted for FDR said nothing has changed....same as it ever was....GET OUT THE VOTE!

Otherwise ANY Democratic President has her (or his hands tied behind their backs). Writing in verse changes none of these facts!

[Cosmic Kitten]

49. So what's the "plan" what are we voting "for"

This fear mongering and
blind party loyalty is how
"we" got into this mess.

Are "we" to belive more
blind *TINA votes and blind
partisan loyalty will fix it?

Seriously?

*There Is No Alternative...

[VanillaRhapsody]

60. the plan right now is to listen...

[wordpix]

12. we need to do both---win Senate & presidency

Hillary has been sounding my message for 2 days now and I will totally support her if she's the nominee

[Cosmic Kitten]

16. Who is she supporting down ballot?

Which Senate races is she supporting?

[wordpix]

21. look it up if you're interested

[Cosmic Kitten]

25. Hmmm? So you got nothing?

I don't see any PLAN
or any SUPPORT for
down ballot candidates?


As such, without the
Senate, we get NO SCOTUS
nominees past the right-wingers!

Single issues voters will
has a great big sad in 2016.

[VanillaRhapsody]

61. She supports Democrats...how about YOU?

[treestar]

57. The Presidential candidate should be responsible for our votes on other elections?

That's sure putting it all on them.

[Cosmic Kitten]

63. If she turns off voters, she will hurt down ballot Democrats

Like it or not,
the Presidential candidate
will influence down ballot races.

If we don't win the Senate,
SCOTUS is a moot point...
the right-wing will block any nominations.

If they inspire voters, that's great
Conversely, it could be a disaster.

It does come down
"all on them" in the end.

[eomer]

54. Well that's the trick, isn't it?

In 2009 and 2010 Democrats could have raised taxes on investment gains without the vote of a single Republican and without even the votes of those last few blue dog Democrats in the Senate. That's because they could have done it using a bill under the budget reconciliation process in which case it couldn't be filibustered.

So most likely if we do at some point in the future give another Democratic President a Democratic majority in both houses then we'll probably find out the same thing we found out in 2009 - that they will always find some excuse for not doing it. In 2009/2010 the excuse was that bipartisanship was what the country needed, coupled with an attempt to obfuscate the fact that Democrats could pass it if they just decided to.

And that obfuscation continues years later. It's still not possible to get almost anyone, even on a supposedly progressive site like DU, to acknowledge that Democrats could have raised taxes in 2009/2010 with just a simple majority vote. I've tried many times to get this point recognized on DU and almost no one is willing to do so.

[VanillaRhapsody]

62. baloney....how long before Ted Kennedy was stricken?

[eomer]

69. The point is that only 50 votes were needed and they had 60, 59, or 58 at different times.

It went something like this: they started at 59, went to 60 when Specter switched to (D), went to 59 when Brown (R) was elected for Kennedy's seat, went to 58 when Byrd (D) died, went to 59 when Goodwin (D) replaced Byrd, and went to 58 when Kirk (R) was elected to succeed Burris (D). All of this is counting the two Independents who caucused with the Democrats.

The point is that a reconciliation bill can't be filibustered. And raising taxes is definitely one of the things that can be done in a reconciliation bill. The Democrats had at least 58 seats throughout the 2009/2010 Senate and all they needed was 50.

[yurbud]

73. why didn't Dems do this the last time the controlled both Senate and House?

[Fuddnik]

10. I've always said, at least since Reagan anyway.

Watch what they do, not what they say.

[Larry Engels]

51. Have you always said this?

Do you say it every minute of every day?

[wordpix]

15. right now she's laying the groundwork & framework

Specific policy will come later. Geesh, give her a chance, she's only been running for a few days!

[Cosmic Kitten]

26. She has been running since before 2008

This is NOT her first rodeo.

[Larry Engels]

52. :)

Go ahead, believe!

[merrily]

27. Will she get 60 members of Congress to vote for cloture? Reconciliation might be a possiblity?

(I can never focus long enough to make it all the way through the Byrd rule. The guy must have been a genius.)

[Larry Engels]

50. None.

Of course she will do nothing about this. It's just populist rhetoric.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I don't know if this is the best path for her to take

1. It's not something 'new'. Wasn't it Buffet who first floated the absurdity of this?
2. She's too close to those who benefit from this.

There are other pathways to the nomination for her - but this one seems disingenuous.

I'd rather hear about jobs, jobs, more jobs, and oh yeah - jobs - from Clinton.

[wordpix]

13. tax inequality=income inequality=more/better jobs under Clinton

I hope to hear about her infrastructure plan, too, which is where the new jobs will be ---engineering, steel work, road work, admin., financing...lots of work to do and lots of jobs, and let the rich pay their fair share of taxes while that's going on.

[JustAnotherGen]

20. You said my magic word

Infrastructure - I prefer green with an eye towards environmental impact 100 years from now and beyond.

[wordpix]

22. green is the way to go---solar lights for the rebuilt hwys, bridges, signs

and better protection for parks, wildlife, national forests, clean water...

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Did you mention that

when you were talking to your buds at Goldman-Sachs?

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/hillary-clintons-goldman-sachs-problem

She decried the "shadow banking system that operated without accountability" and caused the financial crisis that wiped out millions of jobs and the nest eggs, retirement funds, and college savings of families across the land. Yet at the end of this week, when all three Clintons hold a daylong confab with donors to their foundation, the site for this gathering will be the Manhattan headquarters of Goldman Sachs.

Goldman was a key participant in that "shadow banking system" that precipitated the housing market collapse and the consequent financial debacle that slammed America's middle class. (A system that was unleashed in part due to deregulation supported by the Clinton administration in the 1990s.) This investment house might even be considered one of the robber barons of Wall Street. In its 2011 report, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a congressionally created panel set up to investigate the economic meltdown, approvingly cited a financial expert who concluded that Goldman practices had "multiplied the effects of the collapse in [the] subprime" mortgage market that set off the wider financial implosion that nearly threw the nation into a depression.

I know it's cliche, but it is true: Talk is cheap. Actions speak loader than words.

[newthinking]

18. This - It is difficult to seperate political promises from actual intentions. One needs to look at

the history of candidates.

[merrily]

29. +1

[hollowdweller]

35. Yeah but once LBJ was free of his racist constituents in TX as president

He worked HARD for the civil rights act.

[Kelvin Mace]

68. Somehow, HRC doesn't strike me as a new LBJ

[mucifer]

6. I'm more interested on her views on the TPP

She hasn't given an answer on that yet. It's a much bigger deal.

[wolfie001]

7. Wow, that'll leave a mark....

....on their nasty, criminal faces! Well done!

[PoliticAverse]

9. She had a similar position back in 2007 when she was running...

See: http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/14/us-privateequity-clinton-idUSN1339356720070714

[jalan48]

17. The great thing about campaigns is that you can say whatever you want.

[Larry Engels]

67. +1.

Right. The public is so jaded that they don't expect the candidates to do what they promised in the campaign.

[stonecutter357]

19. K&R!

[LiberalArkie]

23. I seem to remember Obama saying the same words even weird ass things like getting rid of

patriot act closing Guantamo etc. I can't remember, but didn't we have the House and Senate then? I can't remember.

[AllyCat]

24. yes. It is unfair. They really don't work and pay little tax

Those of us busting tail to make ends meet pay for the infrastructure and courts THEY use more than any of the rest of us.

Please outline for us how you will fix this Mrs. Clinton.

[moonbeam23]

28. You mean like her beloved son-in-law?

Oh please...this dog won't hunt!

[Larry Engels]

53. +1.

[Stardust]

55. Her own daughter was a hedge fund manager...nt

[Larry Engels]

56. And her hubby runs one.

If and when she is elected, Hillary will forget all about this.

[treestar]

58. What has that to do with it?

You have requirements that certain people not make money? a candidate's relatives can't make money - what other professions are closed to them?

[Larry Engels]

59. Uh...

I think the point was that Hillary will have to raise this guy's taxes if she follows through on this, which, of course, will never happen.

[frylock]

30. I'm guessing this wasn't at one of her paid speaking engagements before Goldman-Sachs

[Larry Engels]

64. +1.

[djean111]

33. Looks like she was on Bernie's email list, because she is parroting what he said,

is all she is doing. No specifics, either.

[mn9driver]

37. Obama said the same thing when he was running.

I prefer specific action items and a timeline. Sound bites mean nothing, and Wall Street knows it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

41. There are brainwashed truck driving Limbaugh Fans who would defend hedge fund managers.

[nolabels]

65. Not as a rule, but as i have been a truck mechanic for thirty seven years

I would tell you that some of these folks are so poorly educated that you could pass off the phrase 'hedge fund manager' as a type of a landscaper and they wouldn't be the wiser.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

70. Truck drivers used to call in to the Malloy Show....

They were listening in on Sirius at the time.

However, like I say, as in any profession, there is a percentage of super patriot assholes who think the Right Wing is "real" America.

Those types have become convinced that tax increases on the rich are a threat to their job. The saying, "I've never worked for a poor man" nonsense.

[nolabels]

72. Some of those 'super patriot assholes' are the most interesting to open up

Really too, that it's not hard to get on their good side after fixing their truck. Dropping some kernels of truth and showing how they have been lied to about things afterward is often easier then.

Mostly and really though, those truck drivers good people that might have had a rough time that steered them into the field at the time. Then figure out that they only (until recently) get AM radio to listen to. It's not hard to understand out how it happens

[Larry Engels]

48. Ah, populist rhetoric!

Chelsea's hubby is a hedge fund manager.

[zazen]

66. does she think Bill helping to overturn Glass-Steagall was a mistake? genuinely curious

That's only one small cause and symptom of neoliberal ills, but it was significant and I believe Bill had something to do with it. Would she support that policy now and in retrospect does she see it as a mistake? I hope someone asks her that question.

I can only hope and pray she'll follow-through on this new-found populist sentiment. Perhaps she really can get her more decent friends on Wall Street to see the light while Warren and Saunders and the rest of us keep up the pressure for economic justice from the Left.

[QC]

71. This is a good start. K&R. n/t

[Depaysement]

74. Warren Buffet says the same

Not much has happened since. What will she do about it?